A host of golden Daffodils (Daffodil)

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	Daffodil
Date:	03/04/03 (4156 review reads)
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Who doesn?t feel cheered to see the first daffodils of spring? They nod their heads of yellow in many a garden one of the first flowers of the year. A flowers that brightens us to think of the better weather coming, Daffodils are a lovely flower to give your mum on mothers day or to brighten your home at Easter.
The daffodils in my garden are beginning to fade their heads drop dying The ones adorning the roundabout on the way into work the first ones I saw in bloom are faded.

Daffodils grow from a bulb. They are one of the easiest flowers to grow. A daffodil has 6 petals and a trumpet in its centre The flowers stand 14-20 inches tall on a green tubular stem with tall flat leaves rising from the base of the stem /Tip of the bulb.
There are some dwarf daffodils only growing 4or 5 inches tall.


Daffodils come in a variety of types the standard all yellow, the yellow petals with a trumpet of orange; some have a white petal with an orange trumpet. There are some daffodils with double rows of petals very showy some of the petals of some daffodils have a crimped frilly edge.


I shall start by telling you how to look after your daffodils at this time of year when the are dying and dead.


No the bulbs are not are not dying or dead but the flowers die the leaves wilt and the bulb will keep their nutrients safe and sleep till next spring when they will bloom again.
When the flowers die you can dead head them pick of the dead heads this will mean that the daffodil does not waste energy making seeds but can conserve it in its bulb? Do not make your border of daffodils tidy by cutting of the daffodils leaves after the daffodils have finished flowering allow them a natural death let the leaves die down completely before removing them. Do not remove the green leaves, as daffodils need to continue to photosynthesise to store energy for next year?s growth.
If you have grown daffodils in pots either inside or ou
tside you can either pot them straight in the garden, or lift the bulbs keep them in a dry place and let the leaves dry of and then store them in a dry place in a paper not plastic bag they can then be planted next year.


Buying and planting daffodils.

Daffodils can be planted in flower borders or naturalised in the grass or grown in a pot for either inside or outside.

Daffodil bulbs can be bought from garden centres and shops or you can send away for them from bulb merchants. They thrive in almost any soil but like moist well-drained soil best they like sun or dappled shade.
Your bulbs should be planted late summer early autumn shortly after you buy them plant about 2 or3 times their own depth about 2 or3 widths apart best if you dig a large hole and group several together at this distance with the top of the daffodil pointing upwards the top is a little pointy.
They will multiply over the years and provide lovely clumps of daffodils, which you can split when they get too big a clump.
Daffodils are an emblem for Wales on st David?s day. 1st march and are worn by many a proud Welshman.

Below is I think the most famous poem about daffodils

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
The
y flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.



By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
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Summary: A pretty yellow spring flower