At this time of year there is so much to do all around the garden. There are seeds to sow, seedlings to prick out, small plants to harden off ready for planting out and lots of growing weeds to keep on top of.
BUT, it is equally important to just take a breath, grab a cup of tea and a piece of cake and just soak up the beauty all around us at this time of year.
There have been times this week with the sun out when I have felt I should reach for the camera and just capture the moment. Spring in all its glory.
A monochromatic vase of white spring flowers this week including Prunusincisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’, Magnoliastellata, Thalia multi-headed daffodils and Skimia. All plants currently in flower in our Warwickshire garden today (21 March 2022).
It is lovely to feel the spring sun on your face once again!
A new one for us in the garden this year. It is around 12 inches high and really very pretty with its lemon yellow flowers with darker yellow centres. It is slightly ‘demure’ in the way the head is held. Almost shy and apologetic.
We bought these as ‘Pipit’ but they certainly don’t look the same. Pipit is lemon yellow with a white centre and as a Jonquilla shouldn’t be out this early (late Feb/ early March).
However these really are lovely. Any ideas on the variety?
I am definitely a lover of spring daffodils in the garden but I don’t think we have grown Jonquil daffodils before. Narcissus jonquilla ‘Intrigue’ really is a delightful addition.
It is a very tidy, multi-headed daffodil with a light and sweet scent growing to about 30cm high. It seems to have flowered slightly later than the bulk of the other daffodils in the garden but before the pheasant eyes. Whereas the others are now going over and need dead heading, this variety is new and fresh and, as stated in the catalogues, flowers from April through May.
When it started to bloom around the 16 April 2021 the flowers were all yellow (see below).
Ten days later on 27th April the expected white cup had developed creating a striking and delicate bloom.
Because it flowers slightly later (in what I consider to be ‘tulip time’ rather than daffodil time) it has rather pleasingly combined with the blue iris that we have in the same bed making a lovely combination at the front of the house.
In the wild Narcissus jonquilla come from central and southern Spain and southern and eastern Portugal where it grows in damp meadows and along river banks 1 . Our soil is generally very wet in the winter and can bake hard in the summer so only time will tell whether they will settle in and thrive. They are such a lovely find and I really hope that they do.
We are out in the garden ... 