Does anyone else find daffodils irresistible? Their scent is one of my favorites in creation.

It was one of my grandmothers favorite flowers, too. For her 100th birthday [April 4, 2005], long after she couldn’t garden any longer, I bought her 100 daffodils. We lined them up on the sills of her sitting room windows, so it seemed as though she was surrounded again by her own garden.

Last fall, I planted about 150 daffodil bulbs in the new Park Garden, which is out next to the driveway. I added another 40 tulips to the shrub bed. That particular garden focuses on white, pink, and a few purple flowers. It felt like a big number of bulbs to me for sure!

This spring, I got a lovely flush of flowers, and I learned about refining what I plant for selling. I planted lots of King Alfred, which is the standard daff. A great scent, strong yellow, trumpet. BUT [you knew that was coming!] it’s also the one you can pick up at any grocery for $5 a dozen, a price I can’t match.

Now I have a better understanding of what to plant for next spring. This week, I put 450 bulbs in the ground. It’s a weeny number compared to the thousands planted by growers I follow on YouTube, but an exciting number for me!

Tulips and daffs, with a little sparkle called giant snowdrops! I love those green polka dots.

I realized limiting tulips to just pinks and whites wasn’t going to work going forward, so I purchased more bulbs with an eye for what might work well in arrangements with daffodils. I leaned heavily into the orange and corals. I also planted each tulip cultivar together, so I can keep track of how they bloom.

Almost all of them came from Longfield Gardens. I am enjoying success with everything I’ve purchased from Longfield so far. Here’s the lusciousness for next spring:

A friend gave me her old venetian blinds, and they make the best, recycled plant markers! I cut them up and use these Artline Garden Markers. They don’t fade like permanent markers. Now I know where each cultivar is planted.

In an inspired act of forethought, I also marked out the places in the gardens where I would have room to plant more bulbs. Using the blinds with ‘tulips’ or ‘daffs’ written on them, stuck them into the empty spots in spring, and left them there. I knew exactly where to plant this fall!

More daffodils are even more exciting though! I bought a 200 bulb cutting flower mix special offered by Nicole at Flower Hill Farm and C&J Farms LLC. These are planted in the Park Garden area.

Then, because I have zero self-control and there was a sale at Longfield Gardens, I got these gorgeous daffs:

So dreamy.

I didn’t want to plant them by cultivar [like I did with the tulips], but I did want to be able to keep them apart from the other mixes. After thinking about naturalizing bulbs, I picked a space in the lawn between two beds to plant them.

I emptied the bags into a box and mixed them up.

I’d been using my smallest auger, but look at the size of these bulbs! Out came a bigger auger.

Instead of planting the bulbs in soldierly rows, I grabbed a handful, tossed them in the air, and planted them where they fell. It makes a random pattern in keeping with naturalized flowers. Some fall side by side, and some further away.

The lawn is compacted and with grass so dense I could barely get the auger into the ground. After the first couple holes I gave up and went to get Mr. Bee’s drill. I love my Ryobi tools to bits but I needed more oomph for this job.

Now I was cookin’ right along, and had all the bulbs planted in no time. First I drilled each hole, added Espoma Bulb-tone, dropped in the bulbs [pointy side up, peeps], and covered them back up. Easy-peasy, except when I hit a rock and thought my wrist would break.

Oh my goodness, I am impatient to see them this spring! I hope my first effort at naturalizing daffodils works!

Stay tuned, friends, for more fall garden chores! Did you plant any bulbs this fall? What’s your favorite spring flower?

Hugs, Pam