Planning for spring: What color is your daffodil?

The Wichita Daffodil Society is having its bulb sale next weekend, where you can find all kinds of colors, forms and sizes of the spring-flowering bulbs. The reason the club has the sale – whose bulbs come from members’ gardens – is to help the club put on shows, which in turns shows the public just what a variety of daffodils there are.

The reactions of people to that variety are a thrill for members of the society, including Cathy Minkler, one of the original members. Over the years, Minkler has been able to see others’ interest and excitement in the various colors of daffodils. What color category do you fall into?

Yellow

When it comes to daffodils, yellows are predictable. But not boring, anymore than sunshine is boring.

“Yellow is the most common,” Minkler said, “followed by white. There’s one person who is an acquaintance of mine who told me, ‘I only buy all yellow. I don’t like any other color.’ …

“Of course, the yellows really make the garden glow with sunshine.”

Pink

Pink is surprising.

“When I got into daffodils, I’d never seen a pink daffodil,” Minkler said. “When I saw one it knocked my socks off.

“I like the pinks. I like to keep adding them.” One that she really likes is Lady Ann. (It’s not in the sale this year, but Minkler says she needs to divide hers. Maybe next year?)

“It’s got the purest white petals, and then the cup is almost a blue-pink, like Pepto-Bismol pink, and it’s the most gorgeous pink I’ve ever seen. I just love it. There are so many shades of pink. Some are so pale they don’t do much for me.”

White

Daffodil white is so pristine that “stainless” has been used to describe it.

Double whites can look like gardenias. Or layers of buttercream frosting.

“Some don’t like the whites at all,” Minkler said.

Orange

Orange is bold. There are all-orange daffodils, and also contrasting ones, with yellow or white.

White Flower Farm has special care instructions for these colorful daffodils: “Cultivars with orange, red, or pink cups generally retain deeper color when planted in a location that receives protection from the hot afternoon sun.”

Wait: red?!

Yes, red – or at least a fiery orange that can be taken for red. And there are daffodils that have green in the flowers as well.

Color isn’t the only criterion that Minkler uses in selecting what bulbs to plant.

“I look for good substance so that they hold up in the rain and so on. I don’t like flowers that are too awfully tall, like 20 inches, because they usually get beaten down in the spring rain.

“Sometimes I’ve bought by name. The name doesn’t always turn out to be quite like you expect. Like ‘Great Gatsby.’ The name sounds neat, but if I haven’t seen it, maybe I want to double-check that first.”

In the fall, Minkler keeps an eye on the soil temperature, which can be found on The Eagle’s weather page every day, and waits for it to fall below 58 before she starts planting daffodils. Once that happens, she plants “usually whenever I get to it. But I do plant daffodils first. The tulips can wait a little while.” Tulips generally bloom later in the spring.

While stately tulips are the main type of spring-flowering bulb that is planted, there are reasons to choose daffodils and other types. Daffodils, for example, take more shade than tulips.

“I think your bulbs will grow bigger in more sun, but some people plant them in the shade of a tree,” Minkler said. “They bloom before the tree leafs out. They’ll still grow in summer. In fact, the leaves might protect them some in the heat.”

Daffodils also come back from year to year much more readily than tulips, and spread. That’s why club members have more bulbs every year to dig up and sell at the sale.

But Minkler also plants tulips that do come back year after year.

“The species tulips are very good about coming back year after year. I like them very much. There’s one called Little Beauty that I have. It just blooms its little head off, and it comes back year after year. It’s 4 inches, cherry red with a blue-ish center. It’s very pretty. I have two clumps that are a real bright spot in the yard every spring.”

Darwin hybrids also come back, as can others if the conditions are right, particularly in soil that drains well, Minkler said. She has a Giant Darwin Hybrid-class tulip called Olympic Flame – yellow with red flames – that comes back. “It is in a very sandy, dry location that dries very well. It’s been wonderful because of the location.”

The club is going on with the sale despite the loss of club member Margie Roehr, a prodigious gardener who died recently and was very active.

“Margie had clay soil, and she put sand in the bottom of her holes for her daffodils to be sure they got good drainage,” Minkler said. “Of course she amended it, too, and she had some raised beds where they seemed to do better.”

Minkler advises planting the bulbs once you get them home from the sale, though they can be planted up to the time the soil freezes.

When planting, “I would rather err on the shallow side than the deep side,” she said. “I always tell people to plant twice as deep as the bulb is big. If you have a teeny tiny bulb, it’s not gonna go as deep. If I get down to a point where I can’t seem to get the trowel in any further, I put it there.” And you want the soil under the bulb to be loose. Once you’ve planted the bulb, though, you need to tamp down the soil so there aren’t any air holes. Then Minkler waters them in, but without flooding the place.

“If it’s a dry winter, you’re gonna want to water everything – trees and bulbs and perennials and everything.

“There was one year it was really dry I was watering every week. There again I have sandy soil.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Planning for spring: What color is your daffodil?."