Narcissus - types, care and cultivation

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Mohammed said about this flower: "He who has two loaves, let him sell one to buy a daffodil flower, for bread is food for the body, and narcissus is food for the soul." And indeed, gardeners who don’t dwell on daffodils are many more than those who do not want to grow them at all. Are there any? Daffodils, like tulips - spring flowers, although not the first, but very long-awaited. Daffodils are unpretentious in leaving. The main thing is to know what they love and what they can’t tolerate. This is our article.

Content:

Botanical description of the plant
Growing daffodil
Types of Daffodils
The use of daffodils in garden design

Botanical description of the plant

Narcissus (Narcissus) Is a genus of plants from the Amaryllidaceae family. The genus Narcissus includes about 50 primary and 60 hybridogenic species. Type view - Narcissus poetic (Narcissus poeticus)

The name of the daffodil comes from the Greek word ‘narkao’ - stupefying, stunning, which is probably due to the stupefying smell of flowers. The name of the type species - poeticus (poetic) is due to the fact that it was so sung by poets of all countries and centuries, like no other plant, except perhaps a rose.

Narcissus is a perennial bulbous, herbaceous plant. The leaves are basal, linear. The daffodil flower is located on a leafless, flattened or round peduncle up to 40-50 cm high, on top of which there is a knot with a peduncle 0.5-1.5 cm long extending from it and with filmy wrappers. The flowers are large, single or in hands, fragrant, slightly drooping, simple or double, 2-6 cm in diameter. It is decorative during flowering in May-June, with a predominant white or yellow color.

Perianth with a long cylindrical tube and a six-split limb, with a tubular, bell-shaped or cup-shaped crow (crown) of various lengths formed by outgrowths of perianth lobes, which usually have not the same color. The fruit is a fleshy, tricuspid capsule. Seeds are numerous, rounded or angular, very quickly lose their germination.

Growing daffodil

Daffodils are a shade-tolerant culture, but in the lighted places the “harvest” of their flowers and bulbs is much higher.

Reproduction and transplantation

Propagated mainly by bulbs and children. Reducing the number of flowering shoots is a signal for transplanting. To do this, after the foliage begins to dry, the bulbs are dug up and processed and dried in the shade, after which they are stored. Remember that late excavation negatively affects the quality of the bulbs, so do not delay the work.

Planting daffodils

The best time for planting bulbs of daffodils is August-early September to a depth of about 10 cm, and the distance between the bulbs is 10-15 cm. Daffodils adapt well to local conditions. Many varieties are winter-hardy and can winter without additional shelter, however, there are lunges in snowless winters. Therefore, some varietal daffodils in the late autumn mulch peat, then cover. In the spring, after the snow melts, the shelter is removed.

Daffodil Care

Daffodils - the culture is quite hygrophilous, therefore, during the flowering period and within 4-5 weeks after it, they need to be watered if there is no rain. The rest of the care comes down to weeding and removing diseased plants. To improve the quality of the bulbs, wilted flowers are torn off before seed formation, since a lot of nutrients are consumed by plants to ripen seeds. Daffodils can be grown in one place without transplanting up to 6 years. Soils prefer nitrogen-potash, so in the first years of life they need intensive top dressing.

The first time daffodils are fed in the spring, on seedlings and in small quantities, since an excess of nitrogen causes the development of diseases and the growth of too tall, narrow, weak leaves. The second top dressing of daffodils is carried out with nitrogen and potassium in the phase of the flower stalk exit, the third with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium during complete budding and the fourth with phosphorus and potassium during flowering. Fresh manure is planted in the soil only 2-3 years before planting daffodils.

In no case should you fertilize daffodils with fresh manure, because it attracts the most dangerous pest of this crop - a daffodil fly, or an onion bug. Of the pests of daffodils, nematodes and ticks are common. Daffodils often suffer from fusarium, sclerotiniosis and mosaic disease.

Types of Daffodils

Daffodils number more than 3000 varieties, distributed mainly in southern Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia. Garden daffodils occurred as a result of hybridization of various species. The culture also grows natural species of daffodils and their natural hybrids.

12 groups of a single international classification of daffodils

Tubular - the crown is long, in the form of a tube, exceeds the length of the petals or is equal to them.
Large-crowned - a crown is tubular or funnel-shaped, more than a third of the length of the petals.
Shallow-crowned - a crown no more than a third of the length of the petals.
Triandrus fruits - obtained from the hybridization of a three-stamen narcissus with a garden one. Small plants, flowers are collected in umbellate inflorescences of 2-4 pieces on a peduncle.
Terry - this includes varieties of a very different structure and origin with double flowers.
Cyclamenous flowers with a long crown and petals strongly bent back.
Zhonkilievy - small, fragrant flowers, 2-3 on the peduncle.
Tatsetnye - flowers of medium size, fragrant, up to 12 on the peduncle.
Poetic - white flowers, fragrant single with a short crown.
Wild species, their forms and natural hybrids.
Split-crowned - the crown is divided into lobes.
All others not included in previous groups.

The use of daffodils in garden design

The plant is widely used in landscaping as early flowering plants, in flower beds, perennials, groups between shrubs, individual spots.

Daffodils are very beautiful in group plantings, small lawns. When you come to the site in the spring, the daffodil pleases with its already blooming flowers, and you understand that the heat has come! And heat is summer. And summer is beauty!