Near the Snowdrops, plant in the same way, a dozen
Siberian Squills. Beautiful blue flowers, which will
bloom perhaps while some of the Snowdrops are in
blossom. Once planted, do not disturb.
_Grape Hyacinths_ (_Muscari_)
Little stalks of tiny tight blue bells, or white,
somewhat the shape of tiny fairy-folks’ grapes.
Everyone should have a dozen or so of these pretty
early Spring-flowering bulbs.
_Narcissus_ or _Daffodils_
Everybody knows a daffodil, for breathes there a human
being with soul so dead as not to feel warmth of heart
at the sunshine glow of its yellow petals?
But not everybody knows the difference between
daffodils and jonquils and narcissus.
The fact is, they are all sold by dealers under the
name Narcissus.
Every Narcissus has a “cup and saucer” form. In some,
the cup, or _trumpet_, is tall; in some, it is short;
in others, it is double: and according to the shape of
the cup, each Narcissus is named.
All dealers agree that the type with the double cup
is called _daffodil_. It is not generally thought so
attractive as the single sorts.
The single sorts are of the following different
varieties of Narcissus:
{_Giant Trumpet._ Very showy, with large cups and
{ saucers. Buy “Emperor,” and “Empress.”
{_Medium Trumpet._ (“Star” Narcissus.) Not so
{ large nor attractive, but very graceful. Buy
_Narcissus_ { “Barii Conspicuus.”
{_Poet’s Narcissus._ Old-fashioned favorite. Charming
{ fragrant white flowers, with cups edged with red.
{ Buy “Poeticus” (Pheasant’s Eye) or “King Edward
{ VII.” Very easily grown.
_Jonquils_ are the small-flowering type of Narcissus.
They are easily grown, and many have a charming
fragrance.
_Polyanthus Narcissus_ or Nosegay Daffodils are the
little clustered kind grown indoors.
All these distinctions, and many others, are made
by the dealers, but almost everyone of us thinks of
all the yellow Narcissus as Daffodils. They grow so
readily, with almost no care, that everyone, with only
the tiniest garden, should plant at least a half dozen
bulbs of the “Giant Emperor.”
Within a few years after planting, the Spring will
bring dozens of blossoms of—
“Daffodown-dilly,
Come up to town,
In a green petticoat
And a gold gown.”
_Hyacinths_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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