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These shorter daffodils are ideal for containers.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced 12 award-winning daffodils that will make beautiful spring displays, just in time for prime bulb-planting season.
The RHS runs comprehensive trials of popular garden plants annually to find the best ones for gardeners to grow.
Daffodils (botanical name: Narcissus) are renowned for heralding the arrival of spring. Often blooming in bright yellow, orange and white, these hardy perennials are easy to grow, perfect for containers, borders and the like, and provide year on year colour.
'For sheer cheerfulness and marking the arrival of spring, daffodils are pretty unbeatable,' says Emma Allen, head of horticultural relations at the RHS.
Over a two-year trial period at RHS Wisley, 64 daffodil entries were assessed on their impact, quality of foliage, length of flowering, health and vigour.
There are a huge 26,000 cultivated varieties to choose from, but shorter daffodil varieties (under 35cm) are becoming increasingly popular, say the RHS, perhaps reflecting the desire of gardeners to grow more compact varieties as an alternative to, or planted alongside, long-stemmed daffodils. Shorter-stemmed varieties are especially useful in containers and window boxes.
Judged by a panel of experts, including nurserymen, specialist growers and horticulturalists, the trials identify the very best garden-worthy varieties winning a RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM). The 12 varieties include:
The prime bulb planting season is mid-September to November. 'This allows the bulbs to put out roots well before the temperatures drop in winter,' says Guy Barter, chief horticulturalist at the RHS.
Shop some varieties below and keep scrolling for top daffodil planting tips.
'For most gardeners the earliest daffodils start in the new year, with many more in March and April and finishing with the lovely poet's daffodils flowering later in May,' says Guy Barter. 'Daffodils are a glorious sight in spring, with delicate white and lemon hues to bold sunshine, yellow and orange varieties. For new gardeners they are easy to grow and affordable.'
Here, Guy shares his tips for planting daffodils – all you need is a trowel or bulb planter.
1. Plant your daffodils twice the depth of the bulb or three times the amount if you have sandy soil. Some bulb species are very tiny and can be planted at a greater depth.
2. If growing in containers, the bulbs can be packed tightly together, halfway down the pot.
3. After planting, water them well.
4. Come spring you’ll have a riot of white, yellow and orange blooms.
5. After flowering, leave the leaves for six weeks.
6. Remember, your daffodils need nothing more than garden soil (unless in pots when peat-free potting compost is used), good drainage and lots of rain when growing and flowering.
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