Daffodils: Lost Forever?

With their wildflower grace, colorful “eyes,” and spicy perfume, daffodils bred from Narcissus poeticus were especially popular during the Arts and Crafts era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Explore the simple elegance of 4 of the greatest of these all-but-lost poets: 1 ‘Horace’ (from 1894), 1 ‘Glory of Lisse’ (1901), 1 ‘Stilton’ (1909), and 1 ‘Cantabile’ (1932). For zones 4a-7a(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2016. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

Jonquils and Southern gardens go together like biscuits and gravy. We’ll send you 4 of the best, all easy, fragrant, and cherished – 3 N. jonquilla ‘Early Louisiana’, 3 true ‘Campernelle’, 3 ‘Sweetness’, and 3 ‘Trevithian’. 12 bulbs total, for zones 6b-8b(10bWC).

With an amber-orange cup ringed by golden-white petals like “the soft taffeta silk which in the old days was known as sarsenet” (Wayside Gardens, 1936), this elegant poetaz is now one of the oldest of that hardy, cluster-flowered clan. And its fragrance is delicious! 8 Y-O 14-16”, zones 6a-8a(10bWC), 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.

In daffodil shows across the country, this graceful little shooting star wins more ribbons for Best Historic Daffodil than any other. Its up-swept petals mature from almost-buff to white, while its dainty golden cup is kissed with orange. In the 1930s, garden diva Louise Beebe Wilder praised it as “neat and charming.” 6 W-YYO, 12-14”, zones 5b-8a(10bWC), Holland. Last offered in 2006. We may offer it again periodically. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

“This graceful beauty from the Arts-and-Crafts era has a special gift. Although many newer daffodils are much more “brilliant,” there’s something uncannily luminous about its sulphur-yellow petals and warm gold cup that will draw your eye from across the garden. It throws back its petals ever so slightly, too, as if to say exuberantly, “Ahhhh, spring!” 3 Y-YYO, 21-23”, zones 5a-8a(10aWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2017. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. We’ll keep searching, though, and hope to offer it again soon.

This charming name gets mistakenly applied to all sorts of double yellow daffodils, so let the buyer beware. Ours is the authentic Southern heirloom – hardy north to zone 5 – that’s been a folk favorite and passalong plant for centuries. Its soft yellow petals are interspersed with shorter ones of gold to almost orange, and even snooty William Robinson in The English Flower Garden praised it as “handsome and abundant.” Aka N. incomparabilis aurantius plenus, 4 Y-Y, 16-18”, zones 5b-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. Our grower is increasing his stock and we hope to offer it in 2021. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

With its neatly layered petals of pale, dreamy, chiffon-yellow petals, this rare double daffodil really does look something like a camellia. It’s a sport of the legendary ‘Emperor’ and especially beautiful up close — which led connoisseur Michael Jefferson-Brown to name it one of the fifteen best daffodils for flower arrangers. 4 Y-Y, 18-20”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), Holland. Last offered in 2019. 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.

“The poeticus by which all others are judged,” says the great English daffodil grower Ron Scamp of this RHS AGM-winning classic with its sparkling petals and flawless form. For a special treat, pick it when it’s just opening and its eye is still (in the words of Michael Jefferson-Brown) “a lovely, cool mossy-green.” Pronounced “kahn-TAH-bih-lay,” 9 W-GYR, late, 18-20”, zones 4a-7a(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2016. 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.

With its demure swan’s-neck pose and “high-shouldered” petals that arch forward to embrace the trumpet, this sweet little Victorian daffodil is close kin to N. moschatus and the classic “Silver Bells” daffodil that graces so many old Southern gardens. Its lilting Irish name was the title of one of the 19th century’s most popular plays. It means, fittingly, “fair-haired girl.” 1 W-W, 10-12”, zones 5b-8a(10bWC), from Holland. 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.

Looking like a platinum-blond pheasant’s-eye narcissus, ‘Dreamlight’ features a wide, flat, rippled eye of champagne-white that’s perfectly set off by a narrow ribbon of orange suffused with pink. Backed by round, moon-like petals, it’s ethereal, unique, and in 2009 it won the Wister Award, the American Daffodil Society’s highest honor! 3 W-GWR, 17-19”, late-blooming, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2014. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. We’ll keep searching, though, and hope to offer it again soon.

Any Top Ten list of history’s greatest daffodils would have to include this legendary trumpet. Once the world’s best-known and best-loved, it’s been “commercially extinct” for decades, preserved by just a handful of collectors — and we’re thrilled to have enough to offer it. With a deep gold trumpet and a distinctive wiggle to its softer yellow petals, it’s a daffodil for the ages. 1 Y-Y, 18-20”, zones 5a-8a(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2016. 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.

One of the most popular daffodils of all time, this landmark beauty helped spark the modern world’s love affair with daffodils when it was introduced alongside ‘Emperor’ just after the Civil War. With pure white petals and a slender yellow trumpet, it’s dewy fresh and eternally regal. Our 2009 Bulb of the Year, 1 W-Y, 18-20”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. 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.

Star-like ‘Firebird’ lights up the spring garden with its long, graceful petals rippling out from a heart of fire. One of the rarest daffodils we’ve ever offered, it’s one of only four introduced by Mrs. F. Stuart Foote of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who’s also credited with prompting her furniture-mogul husband to make the worlds first coffee table. 3 W-O, 18-20”, late-mid season, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. In 2016 our expert Dutch grower told us that he’s convinced this is actually the much older Firebrand.

With a fiery heart and long, creamy-white petals, ‘Firebrand’ lights up the spring garden like a shooting star. “Remarkable for the brilliant coloring of the prettily fluted cup,” wrote A.M. Kirby in 1907, and though the benchmarks for brilliance have changed since then, it’s still a graceful and remarkably beautiful flower. 3 WWY-R, 18-20”, early-mid, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. Our grower is increasing his stock and we hope to offer it in 2021. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

$50! At an ADS auction a couple of years ago, that was the winning bid for three bulbs of this vivid, sun-proof, blue-ribbon charmer that E.A. Bowles praised as the epitome of “brilliancy, gaiety, and refinement.” Though it’s definitely worth that much, you’ll note that we’re charging a LOT less. We really want you to grow it! 2 W-O, 18-20”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Pennsylvania. Last offered in 2010.

Sublimely fragrant, this tough, free-flowering jonquil “has settled into Southern life,” says Scott Ogden in Garden Bulbs for the South. In 1930, Philadelphia master horticulturist John Wister praised its toughness, saying it “stays in bloom sometimes for two to three weeks in spite of storms or hot weather.” 7 Y-Y, 18-20” early/mid-season blooming, zones 6a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2006. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

Prized since the days of Napoleon, ‘Grand Monarque’ blooms in clusters of small, sweetly fragrant, white and yellow flowers. It’s “magnificent as grown on the Riviera and in Algiers,” E.A. Bowles reported in the early 1900s, and it’s especially favored today in the Mediterranean climates of the West Coast. 8 W-Y, 18-20”, zones 7b-9b(11bWC), from California. Last offered in 2005. We may offer it again periodically, or we could special order it for you.

These odd little cuties are the true Southern heirloom, not Dutch look-alikes. With funnel-shaped cups and exclamation-point petals, they may remind you of cartoon characters. Short and early, they’re not easy to please but seem to do best in gritty acid soil that bakes in summer. 13 Y-Y, 8-10”, zones 6b-8b(10bWC), from Texas. Last offered in 2009. We may offer it again periodically, or we could special order it for you.

Named for the Roman poet who celebrated country life and carpe diem, ‘Horace’ was once so popular that daffodil breeder P.D. Williams ranked it with the great ‘King Alfred’ as one of the two “outstanding successes” of its era. It’s another enduring gift to gardeners from the immortal George Engleheart, and truly a landmark daffodil. 9 W-GOR, 18-20”, zones 4a-7a(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

With distinctively long bells that give it a look of languorous abundance, this post-war beauty “stands out as exceptional” among the often “rather similar” triandrus clan, says connoisseur Geoff Stebbings in Spring Bulbs. Its silky blooms are a mellow, creamy white, and the first time it bloomed here we knew we had to share it. 5 W-W, 14-16”, zones 5a-8a(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2018. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

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.

Lemon chiffon pie? The fresh, light color of this rare double is hard to describe but refreshingly different from the bright yellows and golds of most daffodils. It’s distinct in shape, too, a fluffy poof of a flower, relaxed yet never sloppy. Prepare to meet a real individual! 4 Y-Y, 16-18”, z. 4a-7b(9bWC), Holland. Last offered in 2019. 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.

Cute name, very cute flower. From the wild N. cyclamineus, it’s a bright yellow pixie with a long, fluted, “stove-pipe” trumpet and petals that sweep back as if it were riding a broomstick. Vigorous, early-blooming, and a terrific perennializer, it has inexplicably all but disappeared from US catalogs. 6Y-Y, 10-12 inches, early-mid season, zones 6a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. 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.

This pixie, born of the tiny, wild N. asturiensis crossed with N. poeticus, has soft, primrose petals and a bright yellow cup touched with orange. Bred by Alec Gray, the 20th century’s pioneering breeder of miniatures, it’s too large for the show-bench today but utterly charming in the garden. A connoisseurs’ choice, it was already “very scarce” by the 1960s. 2 Y-YYO, 8-10”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2006.

With all the intensity and glamour of a Hollywood star, this early-blooming Australian has a brilliant lemon-to-orange cup that’s extravagantly ruffled and frilled. “Turning around” daffodils from Down Under so they bloom in spring up here is an expensive process, so only the best are chosen — and ‘Marjorie’ definitely made the grade. 2W-YYO, 18-20”, zones 5a-8a(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2009. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

Though this dramatic poetaz has just two or three florets per stem, they’re so gosh darn BIG — up to 3 inches across — that you’ll only need a few stems to fill a vase. With bright, jewel-like colors and a warm perfume, ‘Martha’ can be the belle of the ball in your spring garden. 8WC-O, 21-23”, zones 6a-8a(10bWC), from California’s idyllic Carmel Valley. Last offered in 2009.

One of the most popular doubles of the 20th-century, ‘Mary’ combines a flurry of creamy white petals with shorter, frilly bits of lemon, orange, and tangerine. She’s livelier and more informal than her daffodil sister ‘Irene’ – though apparently this wasn’t true of the real Mary and Irene. For Mary’s true story, told to us by her niece, click here. 4 W-O, 16-20”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2016. 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.

Prada, Bugatti, La Scala — Milan glittered in the 1930s, and outside of town millions of wild pheasant’s-eyes bloomed. This worthy namesake is, in the words of Michael Jefferson-Brown, a “tall, immaculate flower, boldly posed.” Like all pheasant’s-eyes it mingles well with the fresh foliage and early blooms of late-spring perennial borders — and its fragrance is sheer luxury. 9 W-GYR, 18-20”, zones 4a-7a(9bWC), from Pennsylvania. Last offered in 2007.

Known for decades as THE pink daffodil, ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’ is one of the landmark bulbs of the 20th century. She’s more truly ivory and apricot, but so beautiful – a veritable sunrise for those who watch closely – that most modern pinks just can’t compare. 2 W-P, 16-18”, zones 4a-8a(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. We’ll keep searching, though, and hope to offer it again soon.

Named for the wife of one of Holland’s greatest bulb-growers – so you know it has to be good – ‘Mrs. Ernst H. Krelage’ was once sold for a whopping $162 per bulb. Lost to American gardeners for years until we reintroduced it in 2011, it’s a sturdy, buxom flower of creamy white and palest lemon. 1 W-W, 18-20”, zones 4a-8a(10bWC), Holland. Last offered in 2019. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

A leading light of the Victorian daffodil renaissance, this rare beauty has milk-white petals and a crinkled yellow cup that matures to creamy white ringed with pale, canary yellow. Guy Wilson, famed breeder of new daffodils, wrote in 1929, “I hope we shall not lose altogether some of the older flowers of such undeniable beauty and grace as ‘Mrs. Langtry’.” 2 W-WWY, 18-20”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2015. Unfortunately we discovered that what we were selling as ‘Mrs. Langtry’ – from one of Holland’s greatest experts on historic bulbs – was actually something else. See both here, and then please help us spread the word!

This extra-rare, white-on-white beauty completes the Copeland Family Double-Daffodil Trifecta. Mrs. Copeland was the mother of the lovely Irene and Mary Copeland, and the wife of the greatest breeder of double daffodils the world has ever known. (Read the family’s story here.) We imported a few bulbs of ‘Mrs. Copeland’ from Australia many years ago, and ever since then we’ve been looking forward to this beautiful mother and child reunion. 4 W-W, early-mid season, 18-20”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. 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 exuberant double has been a cottage garden favorite for centuries, much like its fraternal twin ‘Butter and Eggs’. With whorls of cream-colored petals and ruffled bits of orange, it’s not only one of the best doubles for the South but, as E.A. Bowles wrote in the 1930s, “still grown wherever gardeners are wise enough to value old plants of reliably vigorous constitution.” 4 W-O, 16-18”, zones 5b-8b(10bWC), from Wisconsin. Last offered in 2017. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. We’ll keep searching, though, and hope to offer it again soon.

This is not your usual pheasant’s-eye! It’s the earliest blooming of that season-ending clan, two weeks ahead of the traditional pheasant’s-eye, N. p. recurvus (below). And though it’s hardy to -15° F, it also thrives in Southern heat that’s often death to its kin. With snowy white petals, a small yellow eye ringed with red-orange, and spicy fragrance. 9 W-YYR, 16-18”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2019. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

True stock! Looking like prom dresses for honeybees, these tiny, exquisite double jonquils are fluffy with extra petals and swooningly fragrant. Don’t be fooled by sources that sell the much larger, much cheaper ‘Double Campernelle’ as ‘Queen Anne’s’. Although that’s a fine flower, the true ‘Queen’ is absolutely heart-stopping. 4Y-Y, 8-10”, zones 6b-8b(10bWC), from Holland’s greatest daffodil collector. 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.

True stock! This fiery jewel won major awards in 1950, 1968, 1977, 1985, and the RHS AGM – one of gardening’s highest accolades – in 1993. With a broad, ruffled cup dipped in incandescent orange, it gives the spring garden a joyful jolt of intensity. It’s named for the historic “red” cattle of Devonshire, and we get a kick out of that, too. 2 Y-O, 24-26”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2015. 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 the Wister Award, the ADS’s highest honor, this Cornish beauty blooms vigorously from Canada to the Gulf. As Bill Finch of The Mobile Press-Register says, it’s “perfectly sculpted,” and with its slender proportions it always seems to blend in beautifully. 2 Y-Y, 16-18”, zones 4b-9a(11bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2015. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. We’ll keep searching, though, and hope to offer it again soon. Stay tuned with our email newsletter.

Named for the curly-haired moppet who brightened spirits during the Great Depression, this award-winning double is more commonly known as ‘Snowball’ today. With an ivory ruff of outer petals and a center rosette touched by sunshine, it’s informal, refreshing, and lightly scented. 4 W-W, 18-20” late-middle blooming, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2009. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

An improved ‘Thalia’ (is that possible?), this rare, silky-smooth beauty has a creamy white cup and starry petals that arch back like ballet dancers. “Most graceful,” wrote McFarland in his 1938 best-seller Garden Bulbs in Color, and “just about perfection.” We think you’ll agree. 5 W-W, 14-16”, zones 5a-8a(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2005.

Rarest, indeed! We can’t find anyone else in the world who’s offering this classic poet’s narcissus by Northern Ireland’s immortal Guy Wilson – and who knows when we’ll be able to offer it again? As sturdy as a pint of Guinness, it has velvety white petals and a golden eye ringed in scarlet. 9 W-GOR, late blooming, 14-18”, zones 4a-7a(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2015. A couple of friends in the ADS have questioned the authenticity of ‘Sidelight’ (which came to us from one of the Netherlands’ greatest daffodil collectors), so we’ve stopped selling it while we investigate further.

True stock! After decades of confusion by US experts (including us), here at last is the true ‘Sir Watkin’. One of the most celebrated daffodils of all time, “The Welsh Peerless” has soft yellow petals that arch forward gracefully around a fluted, golden cup. Almost 70 years after it first rocked the garden world, expert John Wister wrote that it “holds its place well among the best of fine daffodils, and proves once more that we cannot wholly cast aside old favorites.” 2 Y-Y, 16-18”, 5a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2013. 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.

Don’t be confused! This rare beauty is NOT just for the South. Its name refers to the Southern Hemisphere – New Zealand to be exact – where it was bred by the esteemed Sir Algernon P.W. Thomas. With a frilled trumpet of an unusual, soft, “buff yellow” set against ivory white petals, it’s subtle but a favorite of ours – and we hope you’ll give it a try. 2W-Y, 16-18”, zones 5a-8a(10aWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2009.

A familiar relic in old gardens from Williamsburg to Yakima, ‘Stella’ is a graceful, enduring flower with a crinkled cup and wavy petals of primrose to white. Until recently it was widely mis-identified in the US as ‘Sir Watkin’. (please help us set the record straight), but there’s no doubt about this: ‘Stella’ is terrific. 2 W-Y, 16-18”, zones 5a-8b(10bWC), from Louisiana. Last offered in 2018. Unfortunately our grower lost his stock and we haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. If you’d like to be notified the next time we offer this treasure, sign up for an email alert.

With white and pale yellow petals, this is the much rarer, towheaded cousin of ‘Butter and Eggs’ (aka ‘Golden Phoenix’) and ‘Eggs and Bacon’ (aka ‘Orange Phoenix’). “Very chaste and beautiful,” said the Barr and Sons catalog of 1907, “much prized for bouquets.” Its folk name refers to a dessert of coddled (gently stewed or baked) coddlins (green or cooking apples) served with sweet cream. Aka ‘Silver Phoenix’, 4 W-Y, mid-season blooming, 18-20”, zones 5b-8a(10aWC), 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.

As lovely as its name, this rare, creamy white double has a distinctive shape. Six single outer petals frame a short central rosette all ruffled and frilled like a tiny carnation. It was bred by one of the 20th-century’s greatest daffodil connoisseurs at Scotland’s romantic Brodie Castle, where you can still see it growing today. 4 W-W, 16-18”, zones 5a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2005. Unfortunately we’ve lost our grower and haven’t found another yet who can guarantee true stock. We’ll keep searching, though, and hope to offer it again soon. Stay tuned with our email newsletter.

One of the first winners of the ADS’s top honor, the Wister Award, ‘Sweetness’ has been called “the best daffodil for the South” – and it’s just as good north through zone 6. It’s vigorous and refined, with a fluted cup, thick, weather-proof petals, and the fragrance of its jonquil ancestors. 7 Y-Y, 16-18”, zones 6a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. See all of our Wister Award-winners. Last offered in 2016. 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.

An enduring, cottage-garden classic in the South, this tough little wildflower was once painted by Redouté for Napoleon’s garden-loving Empress Josephine. It’s a wild cross of N. jonquilla and N. tazetta – so of course it’s fragrant – and through the years its many names have included ‘Etoile d’Or’ and “the Cowslip Cupped.” 13 Y-Y, 16-18”, zones 6b-8b(10bWC), from Texas. Last offered in 2010. We may offer it again periodically, or we could special order it for you.

“Pre-eminent” and “breath-taking,” Scott Ogden raves about this “refined, modern Campernelle” in Garden Bulbs for the South. It’s “stunningly fragrant,” he says, and – maybe best of all – a few bulbs “will multiply tenfold in three or four years.” With 2-3 neatly rounded flowers per stem, its late-mid blooms extend the jonquil season’s joys. 7 Y-Y, 18-20”, zones 6a-8b(10bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2017. ‘Trevithian’ seems to be commercially extinct, but we’ll keep searching for it!

Since the Middle Ages, mace-carrying vergers have led the grandest processions, hence the name of this majestic daffodil which looks like a pheasant’s-eye but blooms weeks earlier. With stainless petals and a cup as brilliant as a cathedral window, it’s a daffodil to look forward to year after year after year. 3W-R, 18-20”, zones 4a-7b(9bWC), from Holland. Last offered in 2013.

Named for the Queen and “especially noted for its vanilla-like perfume,” this cream and gold Victorian trumpet was a favorite for decades in the flower markets of London (Kirby, 1909). Its petals are gracefully waved and its bright trumpet is richly frilled. In the 1920s, one bulb of ‘Victoria’ which bloomed with its trumpet split into strips became the beginning of modern split-corona daffodils. 1 W-Y, 18-20” early blooming, zones 5a-7b(9bWC) from Holland. Last offered in 2005. We lost our grower and haven’t found another who offers authentic stock.