Two more daffodils today so my apologies – but then it is spring! And these two are so sunny and cheerful that I hope they may bring a bit of brightness to your Tuesday.

First is ‘Rapture’ an all yellow cyclamineus hybrid (6 Y-Y) from Grant Mitsch (USA) introduced in 1976. Cyclamineus daffodils all have those swept back petals and they are very perky in ‘Rapture’. The long, narrow trumpet is the same colour and very straight and slightly flared at the mouth. What is exceptional is its vigour. Average bulbs produce two flower stems and what is very welcome is that the second usually pushes up later than the first, so extending the display. It is officially a dwarf, meaning it is less than 32.5cm high. I have not measured the stems, to be honest, but it must be very close to that height. It is early and the flowers are longlasting and very resistant to weather. To prove this, both photos were taken a few days after a nasty hailstorm that clobbered some of the taller daffs (including the orange and yellow ‘Lothario’ I mentioned last week!). The photo above is a pot filled with crocus (again an earlier post) and now the ‘Rapture’ are out. There are some yellow violas in there somewhere but they are a bit irrelevant. Below are some that are naturalised. This is their third spring so you can see how well they do in grass.

The Royal Horticultural Society have given this an Award of Garden Merit.

Geoff’s rating

10/10

Garden rating

10/10

And so on to another small daff. This is ‘Golden Echo’. It is another American daff and was raised by Brent Heath and introduced in 2014. This is its first year so I can’t vouch for its garden performance except to say that it too has stood up to the weather in its pots. It is a jonquil (7 WWY-Y) and can have two or three flowers per stem though mine have mostly one but some have two. The ‘echo’ in its name refers to the way the colour of the trumpet bleeds into the base of the petals which may or may not look delightful. I don’t think it will send me into paroxysms of joy but it is cheerful enough and a bit different. It is of standard height, meaning it is more than 32.5cm and less than 67.5cm, to be official about it but it is way down the lower end of that height range. I had a sniff to see if there is any fragrance since we tend to expect jonquils to be scented and I can report that it is indeed sweetly scented.

Geoff’s rating

9/10

Garden rating

9/10

Macro Monday April 4

Well done if you got rhododendron! To be precise it is Rhododendron griffithianum – huge scented flowers on a big shrub.

brent heath daffodils, cyclamineus daffodils, daffodil golden echo, Grant Mitsch, growing daffodils in pots, jonquils, narcissus golden echo, narcissus rapture