Daffodils: Lost Forever?

This very rare relic from the dawn of the Golden Age of daffodils was bred by Lancashire weaver John Horsefield (whose name lost an “e” when Latinized.) It was the Model T of daffodils, revealing their enormous potential, and as late as 1907 experts were still praising it as “grand and popular.” With white petals and a rich yellow trumpet, it’s sturdy, handsome, and still awesome. 1 W-Y, 14”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland’s greatest daffodil collector. Last offered in 2012. Our grower is increasing his stock and we hope to offer it again soon. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

Winner of both the ADS’s highest honor, the Wister Award, and the Royal Horticultural Society’s AGM for “outstanding excellence,” this popular daffodil opens with a broad, ruffled, yellow cup that matures to almost white. It’s tough enough to naturalize along a highway yet beautiful enough to win a place in world-class gardens from Chanticleer to Filoli. 2 W-W, 20-24”, early-mid season, zones 4a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2015. Available elsewhere.

The weirdest daffodil we’ve ever grown, and very rarely offered, this fascinating flower has six narrow, green-tinted “petaloid segments” that thrust out of the middle of its cup looking like tiny fingers or horns or tentacles. Plant it where you can appreciate it up close (and show it off), or pick a few to entertain you indoors. By Alec Gray, 4 W-Y, 18-20”, very late, zones 5a-7b(10aWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2017. Our grower is increasing his stock and we hope to offer it again soon. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

“Even more fragrant than most jonquils,” wrote ADS president George Lee of this unusually late-blooming miniature that’s as cute as, well, a baby goat. With rounded petals and an oversized cup like a hungry baby’s mouth, it was bred by Alec Gray, the 20th century’s pioneering master of miniature daffodils. 1-2 flowers per stem, 7Y-Y, 10-12”, zones 6b-8a(10bWC), from Holland’s greatest daffodil collector. Last offered in 2009. We offer a rotating selection of daffodils. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

Our good customer Catherine Yaden of Charleston reports that six of our ‘LK’ produced “over 80 flowers on multiple stems — amazing!” A vigorous, cluster-flowered beauty, it has creamy petals, little golden yellow-orange cups, and a superb fragrance. It’s also one of the oldest poetazes, a group launched in 1890 by crossing N. poeticus and N. tazetta. 8 W-Y, 16-18”, zones 6a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2004. We offer a rotating selection of daffodils. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

This sublimely simple wildflower has graced English gardens since medieval days and inspired Wordsworth’s famous poem. It grows without care from Maine to California but is best loved in the Upper South, thriving in pastures and woods where homes once stood. Traditionally called Easter flower or buttercups in the US, it’s very early blooming, with a narrow trumpet and lighter petals that sweep gracefully forward. 13 Y-Y, 10-12”, zones 5a-8b(10bWC), from Mississippi. Last offered in 2014. Our grower is increasing his stock and we hope to offer it again soon. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

This fragrant charmer looks like a miniature, multi-flowered, soft yellow pheasant’s eye. The child of a wild jonquil and N. poeticus, it has rounded petals of palest yellow and a small, flat, golden cup that’s banded with deep orange. It’s named for a Scottish songbird and its fragrance — as you might guess from its parents — is heavenly. 7 Y-YYO, 8-12”, zones 6b-8a(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2012.

No bigger than a crocus (that’s ‘Paulus Potter’ and Tulipa schrenkii in our photo) and almost as early, this selected form of the Pyrenean mountains wildflower N. minor is so small and perfect you may have trouble believing it’s real. Its tiny, bright yellow trumpets fit anywhere and force eagerly. 1 Y-Y, 4-6”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2004. We offer a rotating selection of daffodils. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

We’re big fans of this vibrant Victorian that was born in Ireland and named for the Archangel himself. Look with your imagination and you’ll see a reflection of heavenly wings in its long white petals, and a hint of what’s to come in its fiery cup. 2 W-YOO, 16-18”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2018. Our grower is increasing his stock and we hope to offer it again soon. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

“Save the Bulbs!” we say, and Jane Kuitems did, rescuing from oblivion the finest white daffodil of the 19th century. In the 1930s Jane’s mother worked for a florist who forced daffodils for cutflowers. She planted some at home, they multiplied like rabbits, and everyone loved them. Decades later Jane sent us a few, experts helped us identify it, and in 2004 we re-introduced this elegant grand dame — to a frenzy. 1 W-W, 14-16”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Pennsylvania. Last offered in 2011.