Daffodil planting season is now in full swing, but if you’re flummoxed by the huge ranges in garden centres and nurseries, you may need a little help to choose the right variety. Bulb maestro Johnny Walkers , winner of 25 consecutive gold medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, has been hosting the annual Dazzling Daffodils festival every March at Hever Castle & Gardens in Kent for the last eight years. He has planted daffodils in many different settings.
“Soil is important and basically daffodils like a moisture-retentive, well-drained soil, which sounds like a bit of a contradiction but they don’t like wet feet, but they don’t like to be where it’s really dry, either,” he explains. If you have clay soil you may need to add well-rotted manure, sand or gravel to aid drainage, while if you plant daffodils in pots you need a reasonably well-drained soil and be aware that even if it has been raining, if your pots are up against the house wall they will need further watering, he adds. Most daffodils (also called narcissi) can withstand semi shade and if they are not in full sun they will last longer and give you a better show.
Here, he suggests a number of different varieties to suit various settings. In pots “Go for ‘Tête-à-tête’ in pots, which come out early and will last a long time. Another short one for pots is ‘Jetfire’, which is yellow and red.
“I often layer them, so if I have a big deep pot, I’ll put tulips in the bottom and then ‘Tête-.