DAFFODIL PAIRS
Yesterday I was having a haircut and discussing daffodils with the stylist. My daffodils are up and blooming and last season at this time, hers were in the same situation. This season, however, is a different story. Why? Because her husband removed all the daffodils from their garden. In my family, this would have been grounds for divorce, but I make it a habit not to judge others. I asked why anyone would do such a thing.
“It’s the dead leaves,” she said. “He can’t stand the dead leaves.”
As I said, I don’t judge others, but removing all your daffodils because you don’t like the dying foliage seems about as sensible as throwing out the man or woman of your dreams because he or she is less than scintillating first thing in the morning. In both situations, there are remedies, including simply learning to live with the problem. People have to make up their own minds about their partners, but daffodils are definitely worth keeping.
The fact remains, though, that not everyone can find it in their hearts to forgive daffodils for fading in an unattractive way. There are still die-hard daffodil tidiers out there who ease the transition by braiding and securing the spent foliage into tidy bundles. Unfortunately this deprives the plant of the ability to gather nourishment for next season’s blooms and will result in a greatly diminished showing next spring. Unless you want to treat your daffodils like annuals, you should leave the foliage to die back naturally.
This brings us back to the issue of fastidious gardeners and fading foliage. The best solution to this problem is companion planting, which involves interplanting the daffodils with perennials that emerge just as the daffodils are fading. Favorite plants for this application are daylilies for sunny spots and hostas for shadier places. Both are great choices. Daylilies will carry you through August, at which time their foliage will also begin to brown out unattractively. Hostas, if the leaves are not perforated by slugs early on, will get you right through to fall, at which time you will probably be tired of gardening for the year and not care about the less than perfect leaves.
Evergreen or nearly evergreen groundcovers are even better choices. My hairdresser, for example, is a perfect candidate for ground hugging lamium or its kissing cousin lamiastrum. Both are members of the mint family and have the family traits of opposed leaves in appealing shades of medium to dark green. Usually those leaves are variegated with cream or silver, adding interest when the plants are out of bloom. Lamiastrum, sometimes known as Lamiastrum galeobdolon or “yellow archangel”, sports six inch-tall flower spikes in the spring. The small, puffy flowers are soft yellow and might remind you of miniature snapdragons. Lamium has similar leaves, but the flowers are white, shades of pink or purple. Both spread happily in comfortable situations and like part shade, though lamium is the better bred of the two species. Lamiastrum has a tendency to get out of hand, but is so pretty that it is hard to stay angry about it. When mine gets too obstreperous and overflows the bed, I chop of the excess with my weed whacker. The plants don’t mind a bit.
I have often written about my ongoing infatuation with big-root geranium or Geranium macrorrhizum. It is lovely on its own, with deeply dissected green foliage that smells of apples and pink, single-petaled flowers in the spring. The leaves turn a brilliant red in the fall. Depending on the climate and situation, most of them may die back. However, they will be ready to resume looking good just as the daffodil foliage begins to die.
A less conventional choice for shade might be hellebores. They are evergreen, though it is important to cut back the spent foliage in the spring before the flowers bloom. The new leaves unfurl along with the daffodil petals and those leaves are large enough to cover a multitude of fading narcissus Merchants offer an increasing number of new hellebore cultivars every year, so you can find varieties with flowers in just about every shade except blue. The only problem with hellebores is that they tend to be rather expensive, so you may have to add plants a few at a time. However, if you install a couple of new plants each year and divide established clumps, you can fill shade beds nicely for a reasonable expenditure.
If you like to play it safe, you can also cover daffodil leaves with English ivy or vinca minor. If you happen to have a spouse who does things like removing your daffodils, you may want to recommend those species to him or her. Unlike an inconsiderate spouse, vinca and English ivy are easily maintained and present few problems over time. Of course, both are also rather hard to get rid of once they are entrenched, but life is about making tough choices. I would always choose the option that allowed me to keep my daffodils.