Small bunches of yellow flowers, short-lived at about two weeks, arrive well before the tulips do. Narcissus — the daffodil is one of its species (Narcissus jonquilla) — is among the easiest of bulbs to please and is happy in most gardens: let the leaves yellow right through before cutting them, and the show comes back every year.
| Name | Narcissus |
|---|---|
| Family | Amaryllidaceae |
| Type | spring bulb |
| Height | 4 to 16 in (10 to 40 cm) |
| Exposure | full sun, part sun |
| Soil | ordinary |
| Flowering | late winter to late spring |
The planting and care will boost blooming, which can turn into a true event when narcissus are planted by the dozen.
Narcissus is an easy plant to please, happy in most gardens, but it’ll bloom best in richer soil.
Narcissus bulbs are ideally planted during the months of September, October and November.
Space each bulb about 2 inches (5 cm) from the next and create the clustered spots by planting 8 to 10 bulbs in this tight configuration.
Flower shops are able to offer beautiful potted narcissus over the winter.
This is out of the normal blooming cycle: for this to happen, stores trick the bulbs into thinking it’s spring. The name of this technique is forcing.
It is also possible for you to make your narcissus bloom indoors from fall until the beginning of spring.
Starting in September and until January,
The same narcissus bulb behaves very differently depending on where you put it. Here is what each of the four situations described below asks of you, and what it gives back.
| Situation | When to plant | How to set the bulbs | Flowering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outdoors in the ground, sunny spot | early to late autumn | Hole three times deeper than the bulb, bulbs 2 in (5 cm) apart, 8 to 10 in a tight cluster | late winter to mid-spring |
| Outdoors in less sunny spots | early to late autumn | Same depth and spacing, simply sited where there is less sun | later than the sunny clumps, on to late spring |
| Potted indoors (forcing) | early autumn to midwinter | 2 or 3 bulbs touching in 1 to 1½ in (3 to 4 cm) of soil mix, tips just showing, kept cool and dark | autumn to the beginning of spring, indoors |
| Forced bulbs moved out to the garden | once the indoor blooming has finished | Planted out in the ground like ordinary garden bulbs | may flower again within a year or two, never a sure thing |
Mixing the first two lines in a single border is the simplest way to stretch the display over several weeks.
Only cut the leaves when they have turned yellow through and through, because at this time, the nutrients for the following year have been gathered and stocked.
If you remove narcissus leaves just after blooming, they probably won’t bloom again in the following spring.
You can keep watering after the blooming and even add flower plant fertilizer.
Potted narcissus in pots from garden centers are “forced” to flower our houses in winter. It is difficult to keep them in their pot since they won’t bloom again unless you plant them outside.
At the end of the blooming, no need to keep your potted narcissus, because those that have bloomed indoors will bloom only once.
Narcissus comes in many varieties, like the famous “daffodil” (“Narcissus jonquilla” which enchants our gardens early February.
Even though narcissus blooms are short-lived, about 2 weeks, you’ll appreciate its small bunches of color, while tulips haven’t yet appeared.
Flowers bloom depending on the sun. To extend the blooming, it is very easy: simply plant some of the bulbs in spots that aren’t as sunny and you’ll have flowers until the month of May.
As the legend goes, narcissus relates to ancient Greek mythology. Narcissus was a handsome young man who brutally rejected the love of a nymph whose name was Echo. Gods wanted to teach him a lesson, and they punished him by changing his heart to loving only himself – hence the word narcissist.
Every day, he would contemplate his own image in the reflection of a water fountain. One day, he even tried to kiss his own image and drowned! Gods took pity on him and turned him into a flower, the narcissus… but still, until today, he keeps miring himself in the reflection of ponds and puddles!
Once the leaves have wilted, you can cut off those ungainly dry strands, and your narcissus is ready again to bloom in the following year!
Don’t mow it down before the leaves have dried off completely, though, or they won’t flower again because they won’t have stored enough nutrients in their bulbs.
Narcissus is about the same size as grape hyacinth, and they both flower at exactly the same time. This produces beautiful spots of yellow and pastel blue flowers that are marvelous!
Tulip, hyacinth, arum, lily, iris, crocus, snowdrop, bluebell or Canna
Deer and rodents avoid narcissus bulbs, so a ring of them helps protect tulip clumps from digging.
Cut narcissus release a sap that shortens the life of other flowers, so stand the stems alone in water for a few hours before mixing them with tulips.
Interplant the bulbs with hostas or daylilies, whose unfurling leaves screen the yellowing narcissus foliage while it feeds the bulb.
