March in the garden: Narcissi

‘Replete’ narcissus - peachy perfection

Every month, I’m going to be highlighting one of the flowers you can expect to find in your bunches, and I can’t let March slip by without showing a little love to the daffodil.

More than any other flower, narcissi remind me of the start of Spring. Seeing yellow drifts on the roadside and in the park have always been a clear sign that brighter days are here. 

We’re all familiar with those elastic bound supermarket bunches of 10 daffodils for a pound, and I love those single yellow daffs as much as the next person, they're pure sunshine.

But one of the best things about growing the flowers I use is that I get to choose varieties that are a little bit more special, and that is definitely true of the narcissi I’ve chosen for you all this season. Ruffled, double blooms in pale shades of peach, lemon, cream and white, full of intoxicating natural scent, with pillowey petals and sumptuous tones. They are heaven!

I planted my narcissi bulbs in October, and by January their green shoots were bursting through the soil - with very little attention in between. In fact, narcissi are a wonderful flower to grow yourself, whether you are an avid gardener or new to growing; whether you have a garden, a balcony or no outdoor space at all.

They look really beautiful planted in clumps or drifts in the garden - I love them in the middle of a lawn (my husband and his lawnmower do disagree though!). If you have less outdoor space they can also be grown in pots on a balcony, or even indoors in small tabletop pots. The smaller varieties such as paperwhites are perfect for this.

Narcissi are perennial, so they will return year after year, and they also naturalise (meaning that they produce new bulbs underground), so they are a good investment for your garden, giving you years of ever increasing flowers from just a few bulbs.

When it comes to displaying your cut narcissi, it’s important to condition them well. The stems contain a sap that can shorten the life of other flowers, so if you are making a mixed arrangement they should be left to rest on their own in water first. Every time you cut the stems, they will release more sap, so it’s best to avoid recutting once in a mixed bunch (take note if you are buying one of my Spring bunches too!).

You can eliminate the extra effort by going for a simple bunch of narcissi alone - I love to mix different double varieties together to appreciate the subtle contrasts in colour, petal formation and scent.

I have around 15 varieties of narcissi growing in the garden now, and can barely keep up with the beautiful blooms unfurling every day. To get your hands on a bunch, check availability in the Flower Shop.