I was going to talk this week about the murky connection between apartheid and the Chelsea Flower Show this week. It’s a story that asks questions about due diligence where events are sponsored, and about how people with dubious backgrounds can use horticultural philanthropy to gain respectability in a world that would probably rather they were called out.
The article is written but do we need any more depressing news stories?
Robins are lucky not to be involved in human affairs
Is it naivety to avoid bad things? I confess that I’ve been avoiding the TV and radio news for around two years now, not out of a desire to avoid difficult things but because I can’t do anything about any of it. There’s a lot of bad in the world and it gets stuffed into the minds of good people, people who are left feeling helpless to push back against it all.
So I went to look at some flowers.
Rosemoor
I have great affection for the garden at Rosemoor in Devon.
It belongs to the Royal Horticultural Society but is one of their smaller regional gardens. Wisley is the RHS’ flagship garden, the one that gets the most attention and resources, followed by their new Wisley of the north at Bridgewater, Manchester.
Rosemoor might not have the status of Wisley, but that’s OK
I’ve done big gardens. I’m now looking for more in a garden than just lots of things over a big area. I want character, charm, humanity… I want to feel at peace in the world, and it’s much easier to do that at Rosemoor than at Wisley. Personally I find Wisley rather soulless and municipal; its attempts to cater for absolutely everyone has sucked the charm and character out of the place.
I go there and I look around, but the place doesn’t matter to me. Rosemoor is a place I can just go and enjoy. I can even see myself visiting more often, maybe taking a book to read or going there to do some writing.
Special Projects
Wisley has worked hard to become almost homogenised. It works hard to impress its visitors, but because it has a huge staff there’s no sense of individuality about the place.
Rosemoor is almost too small and too remote for the RHS to care about, so consequently its much smaller staff get to have a bit more influence. There’s a sense that interests are indulged.
Rosemoor has an interesting collection of plants but doesn’t feel like a ‘planty’ garden
For example someone has been adding some really great new conifers around parts of the garden, so there’s some added interest for when herbaceous plants are dormant. There are a few forms of the aristocratic winter flowering dogwood, Cornus mas, around for example, as though someone thought it might be nice to have a collection.
Whether I like the selections or not is immaterial; the garden is fairly big but it has a sense of being a bit more loved than Wisley.
My Favourite Thing This Week
In need of cheering up – I’ll tell you all about that soon – I went to see if one of my absolute favourite part of late winter at Rosemoor was at its peak.
Tucked away in a quieter area of the garden there is a divinely beautiful display of Narcissus cyclamineus, a little species daffodil native to parts of Portugal and Spain.
A drift of Narcissus cyclamineus
Isn’t it sweet?! Barely 6 inches (15cm tall), with backward-swept flowers that remind me of a long-eared dog like a spaniel in a strong wind, ears pushed back.
When the species is happy it actually seeds around quite a bit; the clump is clearly on the move and there are seedlings appearing in the nearby lawn. You could I suppose call it a weed, but what an awesome weed it is. It’s welcome to be a weed for me!
Small Daffodil, Big Legacy
Narcissus cyclamineus has passed on its genes to a good number of miniature and dwarf daffodils. These are known as Division 6 daffodils, or Cyclamineus Hybrids.
According to the official register there are 646 registered Division 6 daffodils, and that number will increase as breeders do their work. From the tiny to the comparatively tall, Division 6 daffodils all have the characteristic windswept look as their ‘petals’ reflex backwards.
Narcissus ‘February Gold’ is one of my favourite daffodils
I confess that Division 6 daffodils are my go-to for gardens; even at their tallest they’re not out of scale in most spaces. ‘February Gold’ is a favourite early daffodil, with a robustness that seems almost at odds with its slender form, while the white and yellow ‘Surfside’ has flowers so big that they look a bit awkward given its short stature.
Narcissus ‘Surfside’
Gardeners, please don’t be put off by the orange trumpet of ‘Jetfire’; it’s a brilliant little daffodil and the contrast between the yellow and orange isn’t actually all that harsh in the garden. It’s also a tough variety too, unbothered by all but the worst of winter rain and wind.
But my heart belongs to the species. Much as I value the hybrids there is a magic to massed planting of the plant as nature intended. They can seed around as much as they like – can a plant of such aristocratic charm ever truly be a weed – and their presence will I’m sure delight all but the hardest-of-heart gardeners.
Narcissus cyclamineus seeds around when it’s happy in the garden
Narcissus cyclamineus is an early daffodil and will probably not approve of the coldest regions. USDA zone 7 would possibly be its limit, but I’d be delighted to hear that it does well in colder regions. As for seeding, it seems to seed happiest in areas where ground doesn’t get too dry in summer. I dare say that it will be happiest in places least convenient for the gardener, but then what could be more delightful than discovering such a charming daffodil under a shrub or on a steep bank.
We’ve never made it to Rosemoor but we have to Wisley. Of course it suffers from being big and an institutional rather than a personal garden. But the Piet Oudolf borders are exciting and dramatic and we both loved that. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/07/it-will-blow-people-away-dutch-superstar-gardener-redesigns-rhs-flagship-wisley-garden
It has its fans.
I’d love to be there with you, Ben and have you tell me exactly why it leaves you cold.
Ben, if you ever make your way to the eastern US, a garden you would likely love is Chaticleer, outside of Philadelphia. Smaller than Longwood and other estate gardens, full of individual gardener’s whimsy, and making use of woodlands, open space, gravel gardens, paths and flower arrangements in all the buildings. You likely already know of it but. They have a lovely weekly video of the garden in all seasons on Facebook if you want to look. I relax every time I watch.
I was just about to say exactly the same thing. Ben, you would love this place! What can we do to get you to the states?
When I’m not running a full-time business!
I’ll take a look, thank you.
Like you, I dearly love the tiny daffs! I’m in zone 6 and have had ‘February gold’ for years. However, the ‘Jetfire’ petered out after just a couple years, sadly. ‘Tete a tete’, a division 7 I think, is an incredible trooper and enthusiastic spreader in my garden and remains one of my very favorites. More columns on the early bulbs, please! My winter weary heart craves these diminutive early charmers.
I love ‘February Gold’ so much.
I should do a ‘Tete a Tete’ special; it’s a plant with an interesting story.
Please do!
I love February Gold. And Jetfire. They’re super hardy, too, as they do well here in Labrador.
Too far north to grow this little sweetie, but can never have enough daffs. Or other small spring bulbs. Species tulips and crocus. And snowdrops
There’s something special about them, their flowers almost impossibly delicate for their season.
Love this! I’m a huge fan of Hawera
‘Hawera’ is one I’ve admired so often but never grown. Must try it.
That is gorgeous. I love narcissi, my favorite flower in all but the split cup ones which look messy to me! The smallest ones are my favorites along with poeticus (which as you know blooms late and has tiny cups).
I also very much want to read the article you wrote and held back (for now?).
For legal reasons I’m keeping it back!
I used to really hate split cup daffodils until I was at a daffodil show and saw them in vases. I realised that they’re not supposed to be garden plants, they’re supposed to be cut and shown in a vase!
One of my absolute favorites is Thalia, two smallish flowers per stem, very clean white, dainty, with a heavenly scent. My husband relented and let me plant some clumps of bulbs this past fall in the front lawn (he can mow around the clumps.) Even if not a single bulb blooms, it has given me something to look forward to during this dreary, snowy winter here in Connecticut USA.
‘Thalia’ seems to dislike the climate here, but is popular in pots.
Jetfire does tremendously for me in Maine. It clumps up so much that I reduce them and replant elsewhere. I even put some taken from a clump, potted them while still green, tended them a bit to ripen the foliage and they bloomed in the pot another year. Thalia looks like a white orchid and also clumps so much that I have to stay at it to keep it from getting too congested.
It’s a lovely little thing, and I’m glad it does well for you. ‘Thalia’ seems to dislike the wet conditions here, which is a shame.
Wonderful, Ben, your photo of the little bird, and your comment “Robins are lucky not to be involved in human affairs.” Says it all.
Dear Ben,
You struck a cord with me regarding the species daffodil Narcissus cyclamineus. I had these in my garden some 40 years ago, had to move and said I’ll just reorder them. Much to my disappointment, they have become unavailable in the states. I did manage to locate some others I left, Narcissus bulbocodium, Jack Snipe, Jenny and Little Witch from Old House Gardens and John Scheepers. Lesson learned: always dig up bulbs when moving. The industry is constantly unreliable. I bought a quince bush in the fall, only to find out it produces sterile blossoms, it will never produce fruit or thorns. The thorns protect the birds, quince is a natural pectin for jellies and we all know who the blossoms sustain. Who benefits from this bizarre alteration? Lesson learned: always read the entire tag before purchase.
Try Brent & Becky’s Bulbs in Gloucester Va. Incredible variety of daffodils. And other bulbs.