Daffs in flower for 28th March

[Pescador]

I have been commanded by my daughter to provide troughs of daffs, in flower, for her wedding on 28th March 2015.
I'm thinking of planting at 10 day intervals from  20th Nov till end of Dec.
Anyone got any experience of this to get the time right?

[Pescador]

[Digeroo]

Blimey.  I am just pleased to see them when they flower.  Having them perfect on a particular date is a tall order.  Maybe Ace might know.  I think he may have gone walkabout at the moment.

Problem is it will also depend on the variety.  Presume you would need a variety that flowers in March.

I do wish you every success.  I wanted to grow confetti (dried larkspur) for my son but failed miserably.

[Redalder]

How are you growing them? If in the troughs are you able to bring them in/out of  the warm to speed them up/slow them down? Sounds like an intensive few months, a last stop gap if things go wrong and you have a few gaps might be to look out for suitable daffs when supermarkets start to sell them in pots in the spring and add them in.

[Jayb]

Good luck with your mission 

I think the variety might be the key to getting them to flower on time, that and being able to give different growing conditions?

[artichoke]

We had a problem with flowering hyacinths for a wedding - confident flower arranger even got a local  prison to plant huge numbers of them in their greenhouse to be flowering for 14th February, but they were still tightly in bud by 10th Feb. What we did was enlist everyone possible to scour the county's flower shops and garden centres for pots or even bunches of flowering hyacinths to buy and use instead, and within a few days we had everything we needed.

Should you have this as a fall back plan? It is so disappointing to set your heart on a particular effect and have it not work, and it is notoriously hard to persuade flowers to do their stuff on a particular day. Chelsea Flower Show people must have nightmares about it. At the worst you could buy cut flowers that week and conceal them within the troughs plus masses of ivy........

[Digeroo]

I think you should tell your daughter now that her command is a bit like King Canute holding back the sea. 

The tide is far more predictable that the flowering of daffodils.

[laurieuk]

It depends on the variety you want also where you live . I have about 100 varieties so that I can do most shows form mid March to mid April. Have you any particular colour in mind daffodils or narcissi, ( I do know they are all really narcissi but we do call the larger ones dafffs). You will soon need to plant them so that they get a good root system going.

[Pescador]

Hi Laurie, I live between Derby and Nottingham and am thinking of narcissi in yellow or yellow/white
Any suggestions would be a help

[laurieuk]

Most good catalogues will have a number by the variety name 1 being the earliest and 6 being the latest. If you go for 3/4 you should be OK, but some firms only offer some varieties and others different ones . If you can get Golden Rapture , Glenshesk , Empress of Ireland, Easter Moon, Broomhill , Golden Aura, Carrickbeg , Misty Glen, would be a fair selection. If you Google the Daffodil Society I think they give a list of suppliers. I have not bought recently as I am growing from seed to try and get some new varieties. I have registered 4 Ann's White, Ann's Blush , Ann's Cream ,( my wife is called Ann ) and Molly Ann as we now have a grand daughter. You need to show at National shows to prove they are worth naming.

[Pescador]

Thanks Laurie, gives me something to work on