Probably the most well-known of all the spring flowering bulbs are the Narcissus commonly called daffodils. As a cut flower they look great in a vase on their own with a few stems of foliage.
There are hundreds of different varieties of daffodils and their presence in the garden or in a vase at home; reminds us of the coming of the spring season. The earliest to flower; (beginning in mid-winter) are the types that have many small individual flowers grouped together on the stem. We grow here the sweetly scented `Soleil d' Or' which has bright yellow flowers with bright orange centres. Also the lovely double flowered creamy white `Earlicheer' variety which is strongly scented. Both these varieties I like to use in posies in mid to late winter.
August and September is the time the large trumpet shaped flower varieties with one flower per stem, are flowering, and there are heaps of different types of these; they either have cream or yellow petals in various shades; and different shapes and colours of the central `cups'.
We grow some double flowered varieties of daffodil where the petals instead of being a row of 6 petals; have formed into many layers of petals and the central `cup' is much reduced, so that the flower looks similar to a camellia flower. These double varieties are a bit of a curiosity and they last for a long time in the vase.
Daffodils are pretty easy to grow in the garden in a sunny spot, the leaves pop up in winter, flowering in spring and by summer the leaves have died off and you can't see where in the garden they are. Luckily they seem to bury themselves fairly deeply in the soil so that I can plant flowering annuals over the top of where they are in the summer. The best time to buy and plant daffodils in your garden is February / March.