Narcissus

The above photo is showing the blooms from our last year's yield.

Daffodils belong to the Narcissus family of flowering bulb plants. The above photo is from our garden patch last year. At the moment I don't have a camera to upload this year's snaps. We now have some huge White & Yellow Daffodils growing in our garden.

These onions come out of hibernation shortly after the Snow Bells. The buds emerge out of long stalks & are usually dull green in color. Daffodils I've seen are either yellow or white in color.

I found on Wikipedia that all Narcissus varieties contain the alkaloid poison lycorine, mostly in the bulb but also in the leaves . So better be careful when cutting the flowers from the bulbs or while planting the bulbs in late fall.

After the plant has shed all its flowers during the late spring season, I usually remove the onions from the soil, clean them & store them away from light in boxes containing dry grass / hay or paper pieces to keep them warm. I replant them back in late fall, just before the first frosting happens.

Few snaps from Keukenhof, Lisse: -

A typical Dutch house & the flower fields. White & Yellow Narcissus.

Care for the bulbs after the flowering season is gone by: -

I usually allow the leaves to turn completely turn yellow. I guess the leaves usually provide nourishment to the onion below, which helps store energy to produce the blooms next season after they come out of hibernation. As mentioned in the post earlier, I store in a moderately warm place like in a box of hay or paper away from light. I re-plant them during late fall, just before the first frost sets in.

04.04.2009: - Some of the Daffodil blooms from this year's yield.