This 16 March, uncover the enchanting tale of daffodils, the golden heralds of spring in London. From their medieval roots in Cheapside Market to their status as Walesâ national flower, daffodils have bloomed through history, myth, and culture. Discover the wild Narcissus pseudonarcissus still thriving in Lesnes Abbey Woods, the modern cultivars brightening railway embankments, and the sweet-scented jonquils adored by Oscar Wilde.
Join us as we explore their fascinating varieties, scents, and the legends behind their golden petals. Donât miss this celebration of Londonâs springtime iconâreturn on 16 March for a floral journey!
Article
Daffodils
In 1911 the daffodil replaced the leek as the national flower of Wales. Daffodils, or Lent lilies, are a firm feature of March and have been a common plant in London since they were first mentioned by Turner in 1548. They were probably even known long before that. In 1581 they were being sold in Cheapside Market, where ladies used to carry them in baskets on their heads. Gerard, in the same century, recorded fifty different types, and by 1629 Parkinson had recorded seventy-eight varieties. Daffodil breeding is thought to have started by the end of the seventeenth century yet the first daffodil show wasnât until 1893.
Currently we are up to eighty-nine species and perhaps twenty thousand cultivars. There are a whole host of different kinds e.g. trumpet, pheasantâs eye, tazetta, jonquil, hoop petticoat, cyclamen-flowered, large and small cupped, white, doubles, many headed, miniature and split coronas. An impressive range can be seen by just walking around Londonâs parks and gardens.
The wild species of daffodil comes mainly from around the Mediterranean. They are found all over Spain and particularly in the mountains. In the British Isles we have our own native daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus. Fortunately, in London they can still be seen in considerable numbers at Lesnes Abbey woods and Locksmith wood, but they have been lost virtually everywhere else due to picking. We have another wild daffodil, the Tenby daffodil N. obvallaris which, although it originated in Oxfordshire, really only grows wild around Tenby in Wales. It is only rarely found in London e.g. at the South London Botanical Institute garden in Norwood. Discarded bulbs of mainly larger, more modern cultivars are common enough on waste ground and railway embankments. Being tough and prone to clumping, they survive well in such places, giving some limited joy to railway commuters in the spring. Of the hundreds of different varieties to be found all over London the large, solid-looking trumpet daffodils are the most common. Varieties such as âEarly Sensationâ and âFebruary Goldâ are the first to flower, with the strongly scented pheasant-eyes coming later. Among the highly scented bunch-flowered tazettas âPaper whiteâ seems to be sold in pots everywhere. An impressive old colony of hoop petticoat daffodils can be found on the alpine slope at Wisley and an equally celebrated colony of the cyclamen-flowered daffodil N. cyclamineus in the Savill Gardens within Windsor Great Park.
Many daffodils have a light, mossy scent which only becomes apparent when the flowers are brought indoors. Others can have a foetid or even acrid odour. Pheasant-eyes and tazettas have rich, powerfully sweet scents with the most powerful of all being the jonquils or rush-leaves narcissi. These were Oscar Wildeâs favourites. Pliny thought the scent had narcotic properties. In Greek mythology the Furies wore them as funeral wreaths.
Narcissus was the youth who fell in love with his own reflection whilst gazing into a pool. It was there he died of self-conceit and the first daffodil is said to have grown on the spot. Any dew drops found inside a flower were thought to be his tears.
At one time our wild daffodil was widely planted outside public houses. It is a sturdy wiry-stemmed affair with pale, half-nodding flowers. These stand up to the wind far better than the modern over-blown cultivars and deserve to be planted much more. Shakespeare noted this feature about them when he wrote âthey take the winds of March with beautyâ as did Dorothy Wordsworth when she wrote they âtossed, reeled and danced and laughed with the windâ.
