Though English poet William Wordsworth was wandering "lonely as a cloud" when he spied "a host of golden daffodils," he never mentioned their fragrance. Must have been too high up to smell them, because daffodils (Narcissus) fill the air with sweet perfume.
Although they've been in cultivation for thousands of years, there were only 24 varieties of daffodil listed in Britain in Wordsworth's day (1800). Today, thanks to the busy hands of hybridizers, there are thousands, including hosts of not only golden, but white, cream, and salmon-cupped daffodils, with fragrances that range from spring rain to elusive sweetness to the rich musk of gardenia.
"All daffodils are scented," observes Monika Burwell, owner of Earthly Pursuits, Inc., a garden design and maintenance firm in Granite.
True. But some varieties are more scented than others. Most catalogs save the "fragrant" label for those with the most intense perfume. Burwell uses strongly scented early dafs as both olfactory and visual statements.
"I like the miniature varieties, especially," she says. " 'Tete a tete,' which has a long, yellow cup, and 'February Gold' are good. Also, 'Thalia,' which has an orchid scent, has five pure white pendant flowers per stem. I use a lot of small ones, especially in rock gardens. They don't flop over as much when they stop blooming."
There are also superbly fragrant standard-sized dafs (14-18 inches). Examples are the early-blooming, doubled-flowered 'Erlicheer' and 'Sir Winston Churchill,' which has a painted saffron center. Not only do both exude perfume, they look like fairy children in ruffled party dresses dancing across the lawn.
Daffodils are hardy. Early varieties, especially, will shrug off a snowfall even while in full bloom. Their needs are simple, too. A little fertilizer in spring and fall, and periodic thinning will keep a planting going for decades. Additionally, dafs are disease-resistant. And as a bonus, most critters, even the voracious deer and rodents, won't touch them. For a successful planting, site selection is key.
"Daffodils do well on hillsides because they need good drainage," says Elise Havens, proprietor of Grant E. Mitsch Novelty Daffodils, Co. in Oregon. "Also, be sure there is not heavy competition from large roots."
Havens recommends digging the area to 9 inches deep and mixing balanced bulb fertilizer with the soil before planting. A nurturing approach, certainly, but I've also planted dafs by simply jamming a spade in the ground, opening a slot and shoving in a bulb, then pressing the earth back with my foot.
"Put on bonemeal or Bulb-Tone just as the bulbs have popped out of the ground," advises Marci Brown, proprietor of Outside Insights, Co., a perennial garden design firm in Kent County. "Then feed again in the fall. Of course, sometimes finding them in fall is hard. Marking their location makes it easier."
Another "must" is to let the foliage die back for 6-8 weeks before cutting it.
"The drying foliage replenishes the bulb for good bloom the following year," says Brown.
Well-sited and well-fed dafs multiply readily. When the blooms get smaller and fewer, it's time to thin them out, usually four years after initial planting. A winter blanket of mulch helps to keep them from heaving (getting thrust out of the ground with repeated freezing and thawing).
Although hosts of daffodils are beautiful when planted in dramatic swaths, the most fragrant do their best work when stuck in places you pass frequently -- the edge of the garage, a kitchen garden, the hollow by the mailbox.
Sources
* Wayside Gardens, 1 Garden Lane, Hodges, S.C. 29695-0001; 800-845-1124; www.waysidegardens.com
* John Scheepers, 23 Tulip Drive, Bantam, Conn. 06750; 860-567-0838; www.johnscheepers.com
* The American Daffodil Society, 4126 Winfield Road, Columbus, Ohio 43220-4606; 614-451-4747
* Grant E. Mitsch Novelty Daffodils, P.O. Box 218, Hubbard, Ore. 97032; 503-651-2742
Daffodil variety
Among the fragrant standard-sized dafs (14-18 inches):
* Early bloomers
'Erlicheer,' double-flowered with white and flecks of gold
'Sir Winston Churchill,' double-flowered
* Mid-season
'Cheerfulness,' small, double-flowered blooms and saffron interiors
N. 'Avalanche,' (a k a 'Seventeen Sisters' for its bouquets of 8-15 blossoms per stem)
N. 'Bell Song,' a shell pink-cupped daf surrounded by creamy petals
* Mid- to late-season
N. 'Sinopel,' whose bloom -- fat white petals surrounding a tiny lime-green face edged in yellow -- is reminiscent of a Lewis Carroll character
N. 'Pride of Portugal,' with clusters of small single flowers
N. 'Fragrant Breeze,' with white petals
N. poeticus recurvis (a k a 'The Pheasant's Eye'), with a flame-edged, yellow trumpet enveloped in blowzy cream-colored petals
'Rose of May,' all white with a rich gardenia scent