Pink Charm blooms in mid spring with pure white crown and white trumpet that is banded with apricot pink, and often charms with more than just one flower per bulb. (Photo by Ginny Rosenkranz)
One of the first flowers to brighten the landscape and gardens in the spring are the daffodils, with their cheerful bright yellow crown and center trumpet, framed by their dark green slender leaves.
Daffodils need to be planted in the autumn when the daytime temperatures have cooled down.
The hole should be at least 6-8 inches deep so the bulbs can stay cool even in the high heat of deep summer, and should be placed in the shade of deciduous trees like maples and oaks that lose their leaves in the fall.
That way, the spring daffodils can grow in the sunlight of the bare-branched trees in early spring and flower without the shade of the tree leaves.
By the time the daffodils have finished blooming and the daffodil leaves are turning yellow, the tree leaves are just beginning to grow and provide shade to keep the bulbs cool all summer long.
Daffodils don’t just come in bright yellow; some have white crowns and pink or yellow- or apricot-colored trumpets, some are pure white, some have a small trumpet while some have petals ruffled together in a center cluster.
Some have the trumpet split open to have the crown and the split trumpet on top of each other.
Some daffodils are very tiny and are in the miniature division like Tête-à-Tête, one of the first of the daffodils to bloom in the gardens.
Tête-à-Têtes crown is butter yellow with the trumpet just a shade darker and the flowers grow only 5-6 inches tall.
Another early spring daffodil is Carlton, which grows 14-16 inches tall with the crown and trumpet in bright two-tone yellow emitting a lovely vanilla fragrance.
The crown and trumpet are large blooms and very heat tolerant and can become a wonderful naturalizer.
Pink Charm blooms in mid spring with pure white crown and white trumpet that is banded with apricot pink, and often charms with more than just one flower per bulb.
Another delightful mid spring blooming daffodil is Pistachio which grows 14-16 inches tall with a soft yellow crown with a green tone and a trumpet that has a white halo at the base and a dark yellow ruffled edge.
Late mid spring brings Sir Winston Churchill which has creamy white flowers flecked with bright orange. The crown is white and the modified trumpet has the creamy white with star shaped center in orange. Each 15–17-inch stem has 3-5 flowers that emit a delightful sweet fragrance.
Late-mid spring is warmer and larger flowers open up in the landscape.
Sovereign grows 16-18 inches tall with flowers that stretch out to 6 inches across.
The crown is white pure white and the bright orange trumpet splits open and lays flat across the crown, decked out with ruffles at the edges.
All of these daffodils are cold hardy, often blooming even if the Shore has a late spring snow.
The flowers will stay wrapped up in green until the weather warms up enough to show off all their beautiful colors and shapes.
(Editor’s Note: Ginny Rosenkranz is a commercial horticulture specialist with the University of Maryland Extension.)
