The wrong daffodils

I bashed on about this issue last year - here I go again!

As Head Gardeners at Vita Sackville-West’s garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, Pam Schwerdt and Sibylle Kreutsberger had a powerful influence on gardening styles in Britain. They are still most insistent that plants must be suited to their surroundings and one of their special hates is the planting of large-flowered, hybrid, trumpet daffodils in hedgerows and in wild places in attempt to “add a bit of colour”. They just look so out of place.

Country villages are especially prone to plant drifts of yellow daffs along roadsides as you enter the village and even villages in areas where wild daffodils are growing naturally nearby plant blowsy hybrids. The example in the picture is from a hedgerow outside a village in Northamptonshire. They may be colourful, but they just don’t fit.

It’s easy enough to buy bulbs of the wild species, Narcissus pseudonarcissus,  these days – bulbs that have been propagated on nurseries and not dug up from the wild – and there are even vigorous hybrid daffodils in a more demure, naturalistic style.

So, please… why not dig up the heavy-headed hybrids and move them in a garden or park in the village? You can do it as soon as they’ve finished flowering, they won’t mind. Then, in the autumn, plant something wild daffodils or varieties that fit into the natural scene harmoniously.

Comments

[Loretta DeMarco]

I love your blog but wish to remind you that each garden belongs to the gardener. Whatever plants please the gardener are the plants (s)he should place wherever (s)he wants. It is presumptuous and elitist to attempt to tell gardeners what types of plants, in this case Daffodils, are the correct plants to grow in certain situations. Let the “experts” plant the types they like where they want them. Let others do the same. The “expert” is no more right about this than the amateur since all beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[carol]

I support you Graham on the daffodils - coming myself from Northamptonshire where most villages seem to think they have to make the place jolly by having swathes of them on the outskirts - and where individual ones escape to look out of place in the hedgerows - if flowers have to planted amongst the wild ones on the verges more subtle varieties would be preferable - though I prefer the wild violets myself!

[Graham Rice]

Loretta - I agree entirely: "each garden belongs to the gardener". I'd defend the right of any gardener to do anything with their plot.

But what I'm talking about are public, more-or-less wild places, roadside verges which in many areas are valuable preserves for wild plants and animals. Some British roadsides have even been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest because of the special value of their flora and fauna.

And why does the village sign have to be surrounded by bawdy daffodils? I agree with Carol, something more fitting is appropriate - though violets have the disadvantage of being invisible to the passing motorist.