Daffodil

The brilliant thing about daffodils is that they are so easy to grow your own and with very little effort you can grow a brilliant display of spring flowers in your own garden, allotment or even a balcony, bringing colour and joy to even the most limited of spaces.   

Be sure to choose somewhere that has plenty of sunlight and ensure the soil is moderately fertile and well drained. Before planting your bulb, check whether the variety chosen prefers a more alkaline or a more acidic soil, though more neutral to acidic soils are more common, some varieties benefit from a more alkaline soil.

The larger the bulb, typically, the better. An excellent indication of the welfare of the bulb and most likely to provide more beautiful flowers. Plant your bulbs in autumn, ideally from two to four weeks before the first frost can be expected for best effects, and aim to plant them from twice to five times their depth in the ground and between three and six inches apart from each other.   

In China, the daffodil is a symbol of wealth and good fortune, and sending a beautiful bouquet of daffodils to someone is to wish them a prosperous year in all they do. Furthermore, daffodils are simply beautiful and will bring sunshine to any room in the house.   

The most common association of the daffodil is St David’s Day, where a daffodil is worn on the lapel of those celebrating the occasion. This tradition is said to date back to an occasion when a Welsh troop of soldiers were able to identify one another from a troop of English soldiers by the leek they wore on their uniform. Daffodils become the replacement for this due to the similarity in their names, cenhinen (leek) and cenhinen Pedr (Peter’s leek) as the daffodil has been known.