Thursday, February 23, 2012

Why are there Lilliputians in my garden?

The daffodils are starting to open in my garden!  Mostly right now are Ice Follies and an all-yellow trumpet that is probably Carlton or something similar, both of which typically start blooming about now.  But today I found this little squirt, also...
This daffodil was part of a mix of unnamed fragrant seedlings from Brent and Becky's bulbs.  I had to move them last summer to make way for construction of a patio.  I had marked these bulbs as "Early/Short" but they were neither this early nor this short last year!  Just in case it isn't clear just how vertically-challenged this daffodil is, here's another shot...
I have almost no clue why they are like this, this year.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I disturbed them before the foliage had fully ripened last year?  But I have other daffodils, Ice Follies, that are also blooming short this year, without having been moved.  Somewhat taller than the unnamed Jonquilla type shown above, this one towers over Strawberry Shortcake at a good eight inches or so.

I have read that tulips can bloom on very short stems if they get insufficient cooling... and in fact it has been unusually warm this year.  But it's hard for me to believe that explanation for several reasons.  I've never heard of it happening with daffodils?  (Have you?)  Ice Follies are naturally very early blooming and are particularly prolific and prevalent around here in Southeastern Virginia where it is common to not have particularly cold winters and I've never seen them bloom short like this.  If it were going to happen, it should have happened last year to a clump of bulbs I planted in February.  I planted them  at the same time that most of the Ice Follies in my garden were blooming!  They bloomed with the late daffodils at the normal height; they are in bloom again right now at the typical Ice Follies time and height.

6 comments:

  1. I bought a bargain bag of 100 mixed narcissus from Home Quarters before they went under. The picture on the bag showed about 8 different types, and I was very excited when I planted them thinking about the show in spring. Every single one of them turned out to be Ice Follies.

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    1. How irritating! The Ice Follies were in my garden from a previous owner. They just about double every year. I've given away loads and it's no surprise to me that they're cheap to sell. I do love having huge drifts of daffodils so early and I kind of like their color change trick, but they're so coarse and I get bored with them. I won't plant them near other daffodils because they'd choke them out! I liked the Brent and Becky's mix. Since they're unnamed seedlings, I guess they're not show-quality but you couldn't tell by me. And I love fragrant daffodils and these are pretty much all Jonquilla with perhaps a few Triandrus types in them, so the fragrance is great and they often have multiple blooms per stem.

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  2. I don't know anything about daffodils, but it has been warm here and mine are not short like that. I think it just must be that particular cultivar? Your second picture is just plain adorable! Love it!!!

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    1. Yeah, I don't really think it's the warmth either. Hopefully they'll adjust again next year. They just don't look right, the little twerps. Glad you liked the photo. Every once in a while when I'm sitting on my butt on the ground weeding I look around and realize that's how I imagined S.S. saw the world when I was little. So I dug her out of the box my mom made me take when she moved, and let her check out my garden. She seems to like it. I noticed after taking the photo that her face is grubby. She must have been playing in the dirt too!

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  3. Our tulips are coming up already! Too soon.

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    1. I hope it isn't too soon. Spring bulbs are so good at taking advantage of good weather and still holding tight when bad weather strikes, as long as they're not open, right?

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