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September 30, 2014

Daffodil Diary

September is on its way out and I haven't mentioned daffodils.



Should I? you might ask, especially if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, and don't realise that this blog is also my garden diary. The daffodils in this garden are earthquake survivors: strange but true. They have been well and truly shaken up and over the past two years have flowered very shyly. One group of bulbs that I had transplanted three years ago during the Earthquake cycle, didn't even surface last year. They are back this year but without flowers. It's hard to tell whether the profusion of leaf blades in all my daffodil groups, are new seedlings (the old bulbs having died) or are just the old bulbs recovering their vigour. The flower above was a rare treat this year. For the record these bulbs grow here in heavy silt loam, which becomes boggy in wet seasons and bakes hard in the dry.  The multi-headed, winter flowering daffodils, which I call jonquils, do not seem to have suffered at all.  What blooms there were are going over now, but there is no shortage of yellow in the Secret Garden as early spring fades into late... dandelions, yellow archangel, Forsythia and Kowhai all light up green and homely places.


Daffodils Narcissus spp
Kowhai Sophora tetraptera (also microphylla and garden varieties)



6 comments:

Cro Magnon said...

Your Spring is our Autumn. Our problem is that we're all now looking forward to Spring 2015.... a long way off.

Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden said...

Ah but you get the excitement of Christmas in between. The lights, the music, the preparation of traditional fare creates a frisson in the Northern Hemisphere winter that we haven't quite managed to replace here. Enjoy your Autumn :-)

rusty duck said...

i'd rather have Christmas on the beach!
Could it be that the earthquakes have raised the bulbs in the soil? I thought I read somewhere that daffodils have to be planted deep. Just a thought.

Steve said...

Good to know that even after the biggest shake-ups the most delicate of lives continues...

Susan Heather said...

Both the daffodil flower and kowhai are looking good. Kowhai seem to vary a lot - one tree covered in flowers while the one next to it has very few.

I hope your daffs continue to recover.

Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden said...

rusty duck: Jandals and beach towels and a barbecue :-) You may be right about depth. Maybe the bulbs have been jiggled out of critical flowering depth and need a few years to re-seat themselves.

Steve: It's comforting isn't it.

Susan Heather: I wonder if the shy kowhai are suffering from lemon tree borer or just natural variation. This particular specimen is a ragged old thing, but still flowers voluptuously.