In the garden: A busy weekend for gardens 

The temperatures are staying low at present for March, often in the single figures day and night, and that is okay for now.

Buds are bursting with life, but the lower temperatures will slow their development to full leaf and blossom.

However, these lower temperatures will enable us to get more of the seasonal work done before growth starts.

This weekend marks the annual milestone in the gardening calendar that is St Patrick’s Day, and it will be spent weeding, spreading garden compost, and planting seed potatoes in the polytunnel.

Also, carrot and lettuce seeds will get sown direct in the polytunnel, and I will be getting some of the last minute pruning done with roses, hydrangeas, buddleias and apple trees particularly in mind.

It is going to be a busy weekend!

The onion and celeriac seed, germinated on the heated bench earlier in the year, has been moved into the polytunnel where the light is better and this is making good progress.

If seeds are left too long with heat underneath, they become weak and drawn, which is not good.

Once a good rate of germination has been achieved in a seed tray then move them off the heat to a bench in the glasshouse or polytunnel for healthier plant growth that will not become too etiolated or forced as a result of the heat.

From now on, it will be all about moving plants on as the weather conditions become more clement.

It’s a good time to check on dahlia tubers and pelargoniums that have been stored over winter, they can be cleaned up, potted, watered, and kept indoors to get ahead before being planted out after the risk of frost has passed.

Daffodils are taking centre stage, popping up in numbers now in advance of Daffodil Day which takes place on March 28 this year.

These spring beauties are classified into 13 divisions based around the form and arrangement of the flower: Trumpet, Large cup, Small cup, Double, Triandrus, Cyclamineus, Jonquilla and Apodanthus, Tazetta, Poeticus, Bulbicodium, Split Corona, and Others.

Miniatures have the same characteristic descriptions, just with smaller flowers.

Each division has particular characteristics and knowing a little about the form of the flower and these different divisions that daffodils are classified into makes looking at the emerging flowers more interesting as we figure out what division they belong to.

One of the biggest pleasures for me at this time of the year in the garden is observing newly-planted spring bulbs emerge and assessing the flowers as many are new to me and I have never seen them growing before.

This year, there were six new types of daffodil planted, many of them miniatures, and I delighted in finding three of the six this week.

Narcissus ‘Bittern’ is a multi-headed miniature daffodil with yellow petals which are swept back from the orange corona at the centre. It gets to about 30cm in height and will do best in full sun on a free draining soil. It falls under the ‘Other Daffodils’ division.

Narcissus W.P. Milner is a pretty delicate miniature daffodil with pale lemon flowers fading to cream. Only 20cm in height, this little flower will brighten up the garden on a spring day with its trumpet flowers.

Narcissus ‘Filly’ is a large cup daffodil with white petals and a light pink corona, it will get to 35cm tall and do best in full sun on a free draining soil.

I was pleased to find these three, and will be looking out for the other three over the next few weeks as they are later flowering.

Keeping a gardening diary is an excellent idea to keep a record of what was planted where. I keep the labels of the spring flowering bulbs all together and as they start emerging and I spot something new, then this bag of labels is consulted and the puzzle is pieced together.

Daffodils are a wonderful, reliable spring flowering bulb with the advantage of naturalizing and so our work will reappear year after year.

There is great joy in wandering out into the garden and picking a bunch of daffodils with different forms and flower arrangements, and when new cultivars are planted, they add to the variety on display.

There are thousands of different cultivated varieties of daffodils giving plenty of scope for building a collection.

The bulbs are poisonous and so suffer less from consumption by wildlife after planting, which gives them further advantage for naturalizing. They are not a tasty snack!

The bulbs will be on sale from September, and this year, when everyone else is busy buying festive decorations in December, be the shopper filling their basket with half price spring bulbs.

When March and April arrive, the rewards will be reaped for such unconventional shopping.

Plant of the Week

It has to be a daffodil this week, and one of the most reliable is Narcissus’ Dutch Master’ with its large trumpet flowers and striking yellow colour.

It has strong stems and is a good one to use as a cut flower. It is very hardy, reappearing every year and increasing well.

It will get to about 45cm in height when in flower and will benefit from dead heading after flowering to avoid setting seed.

If flowering is poor, then digging up the bulbs and dividing will help to improve this.

The leaves need to be allowed die back naturally after flowering to build up energy in the bulb for flowering the following year.

Feeding the foliage with a liquid seaweed fertiliser after flowering will help strengthen bulbs also.