CULTURAL NOTES 
Daffodils— 
Although many people do not seem to realize it, the culture of daffodils is 
extremely easy and it is a barren garden in which properly chosen varieties 
will not endure and thrive. The great King Alfred, glorious as it is when 
well grown, is so complete a failure in many soils and districts that it has 
given daffodils in general a thoroughly undeserved bad name. The same 
holds for many of the common florists’ varieties, which, adapted principally 
for forcing, have had far too wide distribution in gardens. The innumerable 
lovely kinds suitable for exhibition or adapted through their vigor and grace 
of habit for garden decoration, are a very different proposition. The hard, 
lifeless clay soils, hot sun, and dry atmosphere of southern California offer 
in some ways greater obstacles to successful daffodil culture than are met 
with in most regions but even these can be successfully surmounted and 
some varieties, especially certain of the garden hybrids originated in the 
Antipodes, the Tazetta and Poetaz groups, and a few of the smaller wild 
Narcissi, do exceptionally well here. The wise gardener will plan to acquire 
at least a few carefully chosen varieties each year, at the same time discard¬ 
ing the poorest or least suitable to his particular conditions of those pre¬ 
viously grown, while propagating or purchasing more of those proven most 
satisfactory. 
The principal requirement to be met is deep and thorough preparation of 
the soil. Powerful manures are unnecessary, even objectionable, though a 
soil richly fertilized for vegetables or some other crop of the previous year 
will give splendid results in the growing of exhibition flowers. For ordinary 
garden decoration and cutting not even this is necessary. The bulbs may be 
put almost anywhere in the borders that fancy dictates, remembering not to 
associate them with plants requiring heavy fertilizing and that few of them 
flower well in too much shade. 
A light dressing of bone meal or wood-ashes now and then, well raked into 
the soil, will be all the plant food asked for. 
The worst thing daffodils have to fear when in flower is a hot drying wind 
which soon scorches and withers them, or at the very least burns out the 
beautiful orange and red edgings from the cups. The ideal exposure is one 
where there is morning and late afternoon sun but some protection from the 
mid-day blaze. The bare branches of deciduous trees help greatly and daffo¬ 
dils planted beneath them both look well and do well. All flowers containing 
orange are particularly lovely when illuminated by the gently glowing rays 
of sunset. 
It is not necessary to dig daffodil bulbs every year, in fact we can gen¬ 
erally count on our best flowers from bulbs two and three years down, and 
the garden effect is most certainly better then. Some varieties multiply much 
faster than others and it is best to be guided partly by this and partly by the 
way the plants seem to be doing. 
When the drainage is good (and daffodils can not be expected to succeed 
unless it is), they do not object to reasonable watering all summer, while the 
poeticus-types and their hybrids are often appreciably the better for it. 
For most varieties a safe depth to plant is about 1J4 times the depth of the 
bulb measured in each case to the shoulder. 
Daffodils have their afflictions in the way of diseases and pests as do all 
plants. In some districts the big Merodon fly is quite a nuisance. Bulb 
mites and bulb nematodes should also be looked out for. Space does not 
permit discussion of these here but the interested reader will find ample 
treatment in the various standard books and bulletins on Narcissus, espe¬ 
cially the invaluable Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 304. 
One very widespread affliction is “leaf-stripe”. Whether this is a single 
“mosaic” disease or a symptom variously induced, it is a most insidious 
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