A Host of Golden Daffodils (And Other Bulbs!)

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Now that it’s September, we’ve officially entered bulb-planting season. It’s time to get things like daffodils, alliums, crocuses and hyacinths into the ground. So, with that in mind, we’ve put together a bulb deep dive – with a strong emphasis on those golden classics, narcissi. In the episode, we travel to Lindley Library to get the backstory of daffodils’ long history of cultivation, chat with TV horticulturist and daff-lover Camilla Bassett-Smith about her favourite varieties, catch a tutorial on naturalising narcissi in the landscape, and then finally, check in with Michael Perry (aka Mr Plant Geek) on all that’s trending with bulbs this year. Links: Visit the RHS Lindley Library A Host of Golden Daffodils: The story of a springtime favourite How to grow daffodils Bulbs: naturalising

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get your tickets for the greatest show in Earth at an RHS garden near you.
0:06.4	Where nature puts on an unforgettable performance of colour and fragrance to delight your senses.
0:13.2	Inspire your gardening adventures and entertain your own little stars.
0:17.4	Race you, let's go.
0:19.5	Catch Springs finest scenes while you can,
0:21.6	at an RHS garden near you.
0:23.6	Book tickets online for discounts, plus under fives go free and under 16s of five pounds.
0:33.6	I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high over veils and hills,
0:38.3	when all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils,
0:43.3	beside the lake beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
0:48.3	Those are the words of the romantic poet William Wordsworth.
0:53.3	He wrote this classic poem,
0:55.2	I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, in the early 1800s after he encountered a stunning belt of daffodils
1:00.9	while walking through the countryside with his sister on April. In this opening stands,
1:06.8	though Wordsworth is able to perfectly sum up the feeling daffodils bring us each spring
1:11.1	as they cut through the harsh winter landscape, joyous and yellow, full of life, ushering in a new season.
1:19.6	As the world's de facto daffodil capital, the power that these flowers hold is communal,
1:25.6	an experience shared by those up, down and across the UK.
1:29.3	I think daffodils for me, firstly I think they were one of the first flowers that I truly loved.
1:35.3	I truly started collecting them when I was probably 11 or 12.
1:39.3	There's just so much history to daffodils. They're absolutely fascinating.
1:45.0	They're just like this ray of light, aren't they?
	...

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