Planting Narcissi

You may have noticed a definite trend in my last few posts; lots of planting and little of anything else which pretty much sums up this time of year, all prep and no results.  I used to really like this time of year as it conjures images of crispy walks, evenings snuggled up by a crackling open fire, dog at your feet,  cocoa in hands.  In reality its cold, there's never ending rain, I don't have an open fire or a dog and nothing is doing anything exciting in the garden.  Its dull.

I can't remember, as I obviously didn't think to write down which bulbs I put with which,
oh well a little surprise for spring 

Peach Swirl bulbs, unsurprisingly brown and crusty

So to cheer myself up I am definitely thinking about Spring and making sure I have buried all the right bulbs for a great display.  In the past this would definitely not have included daffodils as I have always vehemently abhored them.  I think this is for exactly the same reason as why I hate things like bagonias and pansies, they are just so predictable and unoriginal.  Call me a snob but these kind of plants always say to me that the gardener just went into the garden centre, bought the most recogniseable plant they could and really didn't have to engage their brain at all, and thats just boring.  Daffodils are so over relied upon in the spring to bring a little colour to our lives that you end up being bombarded with them and I for one get sick of seeing them.  But it doesn't have to be this way I have discovered.

Our salvation in this situation are the more refined narcissus varieties.  Yes I know that technically a daffodil is a narcissus but there is a vast difference between the standard yellow garden daffodil and the frilly, eggy yellow little swirls that the mother grew in a pot last year.  I loved them, as always a sucker for a frill.  Im pleased to say that particular variety were dried out over the summer and are back in a pot ready for a good performance next year.

The varieties that came in small brown bags were hawera, minnow and sundisk.
We will have to wait until spring to find out what they look like.

I am so bored of pictures of bulbs

But me being me, I had to have more.  I considered buying some really nice narcissus bulbs on the internet, but they are really expensive!  Not having a proper job or vast income just at the second that was a luxury I just couldnt justify.  Luckily the garden centre also do some pretty decent varieties that wont make you cry at the till.  I  had two purchasing sprees, one at the same time as when I bought my agricultural sand when I bought three smaller tet-a-tet varieties, and then another splurge when I bought several proper packs.  Despite being half the price I think my garden centre buys are still some pretty decent specimens.

I hope to get more than one year out of these bulbs, I want to add to them rather than replace next year and I could see that if I went for pots containing mixtures, or one big daffodil explosion of a pot as the mother suggested, then next year I would have no idea what varieties all the bulbs were, I guess it shouldn't really matter, but it does to me.  We don't exactly have endless free terracotta pots, a situation the mother didn't help by stuffing a hydrangea in a nice big one while I was taking a nap one day.
My solution was to put one big bulbed variety with one small bulbed one.  I can't say any of the varieties were a match made in heaven, but some times you have to work with what you've got.
Planting daffodil bulbs is not rocket science and follows the pattern of most bulbs; compost, bulbs spaced out at the correct depth according to the packet, more compost, water.  Unfortunately some of my bulbs I bought loose and therefore had to do some research/guesswork as to the correct depth.  At the end of the day, I very much doubt the bulbs are down there with tape measures if I am an inch or two out.

I will wait until spring to critique the frilliness, colour and growing style of my chosen varieties as I don't have much to go on at the moment, and we all know that the packets can be misleading. But all the bulbs are now all tucked up snug in their soil.