bev - email - url
What a wonderful collection of daffodils. How neat that they have come from so many different sources. It’s almost like you have a retirement home for weary daffodils that just want to put down roots and relax. Aren’t they about the most cheerful of the flowers - and so undemanding.
Saturday: 17 March 2007 @ 06:55:42
pablo - email - url
In one of Sue Hubbell’s books she writes of the previous tenants of her Ozark mountaintop homestead and how the poor wife of the crusty mountaineer had wanted a bed of daffodils. Her husband finally relented and bought a couple of cases of bulbs. Then he hitched the plow to the back of his tractor and dug a bunch of trenches into the woods, radiating from the house. He put the bulbs in the trenches, and in the spring, long lines of daffodiles would lead into the forest all around. Nontraditional planting, to be sure, but great for story telling.
I planted a few daffodil bulbs at Roundrock when we first owned the land. Some beside the road leading in and some near our first campsite. They never did well, and I don’t think they even try to flower anymore, but that’s just as well since they are not native and I don’t really want to introduce any non-natives to my forest anymore.
I’ve been told that once the flower has faded on daffodils (also tulips and other bulb plants) one should snip the flower stalk so that it doesn’t try to go to see, thus depriving the bulb of energy. Conversely, one should leave the speared leaves until they fade on their own so they can nurture the bulb with their photosynthesis. Does this make sense? I’ve done it pretty consistently through the years, but I can’t see that it’s made any difference either way?
Saturday: 17 March 2007 @ 07:01:26
Wayne - email - url
Bev - I really like the idea of the retirement home for old daffodils! It helps to upgrade my reputation for a cold, cruel, native plant-obsessed fanatic, a reputation I must protest!
And they are cheery. If I can be buoyed, here in verdantland, how could anyone in the far, cold white north, not be?
Pablo, the idea of snipping developing fruits and retaining the leaves makes perfect sense.
But now I’m conflicted - here I’m trying to soften my reputation for strict, non-native repudiation, and you’re trying to acquire it! 
Here’s my rationalization, and it does invoke a situation you are not yet in, but presumably will be. When you build a house, it will be surrounded by a footprint of destruction that inevitably accompanies the movements of large machinery, spills of not-so-nice materiel onto the ground, and cutdowns of surrounding trees. What better place to provide a retirement home for tired daffodils, and what better reason than February?
Saturday: 17 March 2007 @ 07:24:37
FC - email - url
I love the idea of rescuing heirlooms from odd and old places. As you said, they are not invasive, so why not? The variety is fascinating.
Here, I put narcissus (paperwhites) bulbs in my classroom window and let the kids notice them and their daily growth. It’s always a conversation starter.
I stick the bulbs in the plant bed next to the house, but I only get greenery, they never bloom. I suppose that has something to do with chilling hours, but I don’t care to dig them up annually and store them in the fridge.
You and Bev got me all crawfishy, so I went dipping yesterday. I’m sure I’ll have a crawfish post eventually.
Saturday: 17 March 2007 @ 08:14:13
Karen - email - url
We found a clump of daffodils out in the woods last week, where we’d never noticed them before. Looked to be in an area that’s often flooded, so I figure the bulbs just washed down from somewhere upstream.
Saturday: 17 March 2007 @ 15:40:21
pablo - email - url
I’ve been told that looking for non-native flowers in the forest is a good way to identify an old homestead site. I did that once at a park. Found some day lillies and kept looking around. Eventually I found some bricks and even an old spring mattress.
Saturday: 17 March 2007 @ 18:21:50
Rurality - email - url
Daylillies and daffodils point out old homesites a lot... I read once where iris will sometimes point out an old graveyard.
Monday: 19 March 2007 @ 20:28:12