HORTICULEURAL NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 9, 26 August 1911, Page 3

HORTICULEURAL NOTES.

THE DAFFODIL. “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” So sang John Keats; and although the phrase is so often used, it is not generally known that the words were applied in praise of the daffodil. No doubt the first gardens planted were chiefly stocked with plants and herbs which were good to eat, and afterwards the flowering plants weie added as embelishments. The trumpet daffodils are natives of Britain and probably among the first flowers to be used for this purpose. They wore, however, evidently grown in other countries while the Britons were clad in skins, as wreaths of these flowers have been discovered in tombs dating hundreds of years before the Christian era. Their popularity has hold and increased as the centuries have passed, and deservedly so. Their hardihood is remarkable, and without care or cultivation they will thrive and multiply and continue to bloom in spite of the most unkind treatment. Daffodils have been known to come up smiling after being buried under two foot of soil and even to force their way through asphalt. In one of the East Indian Islands the daffodil has run riot over the entire island, and the clumps have been flowering in the sam,e localities during the living memory of the oldest inhabitants.

11l ordinary cultivation the daffodil increases very ; rapidly, in the case of some varieties the number of bulbs being trebled in a single season. This fact and the consequent impoverishment of the soil necessitates the lifting of the bulbs for dividing every season, or at least every alternate season. The idea seems to be generally accepted that bulbs need a rest, and that a long period out of tho ground is beneficial. The reverse is, in fact, true, and a famous grower in England recently gave his opinion that a bulb could not remain one hour out of the ground without injury. The reason is that.good roots are the secret of good blooms, and immediately the foliage of the bulb dies down tho young roots start afresh for the next blooming period, and so development starts beneath tho ground long before the young shoots appear through the surface. When lifting is to be carried out tho bulbs should be lifted and planted tho same day, and tho earlier it is done after the foliage has turned yellow the better. In the light soil of Taranaki the bulbs, especially if they are to bo left for some time without lifting, may be planted a little deeper than is generally the ease. As the bulbs multiply .they are forced nearer the surface and this tends to poorer flowers. 'An instance of this will often ho seen in the common .double daffodil “Telemonius Plenus,” the flowers being streaked with green or occasionally entirely of a sickly green colour. This variety,.delights in a heavy soil and should ho planted in damp localities.

• , Undoubtedly the most effective way of, growing daffodils is the massing of each variety into groups either in the border or naturalised in tho wild portions of the estate. The effect of a mass of those .gorgeous beauties is striking indeed and long to be remembered as “a thing of beauty.”