Daffodil Spring

We’re having a beautiful spring this year. Nice wet soil from a rainy autumn and bright sunny days mean that the shrubs and perennials are really thriving in the gardens, putting on strong healthy growth. Seed germination has been good, and we are excitedly lifting the pots of our autumn-taken rose cuttings to look for signs of roots… everything is so growy! In early April the gardens are rich in blossom and assorted bulbs, but the main attraction at this time of the year for us is the wonderful rainbow of different narcissi varieties, which we love for their scent, for the satisfying texture of their petals, for their soft uplifting colours, and for their beautiful air of freshness. We have lots of different kinds, which give us a long flowering season of four or five weeks, with a late flurry of ‘poeticus plenus’ at the end of May. Just now my favourite is ‘White Lion’, with a mad Walnut Whip scrunch of twisty petals within a stiff white ruff. Each flower is slightly different to the others. Lots of time wasted, peering into their scrumpled depths.