Plant of the Season
Jonquils
Plant of the Season is brought to you by Gayle Parkes, OGV sub-committee member. She also posts to OGV's Instagram - make sure you check back regularly for her latest post.
Narcissus is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names that we all know, including daffodil, narcissus and jonquil, are used to describe all or some members of the genus.
It’s the sweet scented cheery blooms of the earliest narcissus to flower, the jonquils, that are making me smile at the moment. When the garden could do with a bit of colour and cheer, up they pop! Just when we need them! I must admit, I become a little excited when I see their grey/green foliage start to emerge in autumn and even more excited with anticipation when I notice the flower spears appearing not long after that.
The jonquil (Narcissus jonquilla cv.) is said to be the most indestructible and easy to grow of all garden bulbs, often found in abandoned gardens surviving the harshest conditions of neglect. They come in miniature, single and double varieties and colours ranging from white to cream to sunny yellow. The flowers cluster together on strong stems in groups of up to 20. Jonquil Earlicheer and Jonquil Soliel Dor are personal favourites. I am seeing them in so many gardens right now and with their reliable flowering and strong fragrance they appear to be the most popular.
Like many bulbs, jonquils are ideal in containers as well. A lovey terracotta pot, bursting with the happiness of these sweet blooms is hard to beat. With garden plots becoming smaller these days, what a perfect compromise. A sunny balcony, a sunny deck or courtyard – we can all enjoy this very rewarding little gem.
To revel in their cream and yellow blooms during the winter you'll need to plan ahead. Jonquils should be planted in February-March when bulbs are freely available in garden centres or online stockists. Choose bulbs that are plump and firm and if you remember to bury pointy side up/roots down, you can’t go wrong. They prefer a sunny position, with well-draining soil. If you want to give your bulbs a head start, mix some compost and bulb fertiliser through the soil before planting. Jonquils don’t need lifting for years but to increase bulb numbers, you can dig and divide them when the leaves have died down if you want.
This close relative of the daffodil has been celebrated for millennia. I have such strong warm memories of them in my nan’s cottage garden in country Victoria, flowering year after year, just next to the water tank. Still today they will make a great addition to your garden for all the right reasons. They are super easy to grow, they are winter flowering, are inexpensive and are almost indestructible.
Jonquils make excellent long lasting cut flowers. For me, their fragrance is divine! When in season bunches of these beauties are readily available in florists so we can all have a vase of jonquils prominently displayed in a favourite room of our homes. But even better is to wander around your garden with your secateurs, snipping a bloom here and there and popping it in to just the right container, be it a old jam jar or your finest crystal bud vase…… they will look lovely and they don’t come much fresher than that.
The jonquil. Plant them once and enjoy them for many pleasurable years to come.