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Overview
The Narcissus Double Group encompasses blooms with doubling of the perianth segments or the corona or both.
These are instantly attractive, some would say romantic variants on the common daffodil that sport wonderfully extravagant, frilly blooms in a huge variety of shapes and colours.
Many cultivars are fragrant, unlike the common daffodil. They usually bear one flower per stem, but some like Narcissus 'Erlicheer' have multiple heads per stem.
Soil: Moist, friable and well drained soils with added organic matter.
Daffodils go particularly well in pots and to get a longer display of flowers its a good idea to make a Daffodil Lasagne - that is plant the bulbs in multiple layers so that they will emerge at different times, rewarding you with a longer lasting display of their wonderfully colourful blooms.
Maintenance: Keep well watered when leaves appear and especially when coming into flower. Liquid feed weekly when flowers appear.
Allow foliage to die right back so as not to deprive the Daffodil bulb of naturally produced nutrients.
They can be left to multiply underground (if you have space for them to expand). Otherwise its good to lift them every few years to separate, let dry out over summer and re-plant in autumn.
By spacing them out they will then have more room to grow and less competition for nutrients.
N.B. it is important to keep your bulbs in a dry and dark environment when lifted over summer - lay out in shallow trays lined with straw and place in an indoor cupboard.
Diseases: Slugs, snails, aphids, nematodes, bulb mites and some virus diseases.
Toxicity: All parts of the daffodil contain a toxin, lycorine, with the highest concentration in the bulb.
However, eating any part of the plant can cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Though it is so bitter, why would you?
Other Species: Wild species number around 50 but there are 8,000 named hybrids.
The RHS publishes a list of approved Narcissus cultivars which it has split into 13 divisions:-
#1. Trumpet Daffodils
#2. Large-Cupped
#3. Small-Cupped
#4. Double
#5. Triandrus
#6. Cyclamineus
#7. Jonquilla and Apodanthus
#8. Tazetta
#9. Poeticus
#10. Bulbocodium
#11. Split-Corona, Collar and Papillon
#12. Other Cultivars
#13. Wild Species
Comments: Daffs are best planted en-masse and they work particularly well when different groups are mixed together. apart from the variety of shapes and colours, they will also emerge and bloom at different times ensuring you have a long lasting spring display.
Author: Bob Saunders.