Garden On, Vashon

Plant Spring Now, with bulbs!

I’ve been wanting to suggest this idea to Islanders for a long time: let’s plant more daffodils along our roadways.

Several years ago while driving to the Oregon Coast, I noticed many a roadside verge was blooming with naturalized daffodils. I tell you, on a drizzly day it gladdens the heart to see them.

Since many a Vashon garden is down the driveway, much of our spring bloom is a private, out of sight affair. What a gift it would be to all of us, to see those bright splashes of springtime along our rain-gray roadways!

Siting Daffodils

Plenty of our Island roadsides are of a similar grass-n-ditch variety. On such banked-up verges, daffodils can enjoy good drainage and protection from early spring mowings.

If you plant at least eight feet from the road, your daffs will probably be out of reach of King County mowers. Or you can shelter them at the foot of your mailbox or newspaper tube, where neither the County or you are likely to mow. Daffodil foliage needs to “ripen”—that is, take in sunlight to feed the bulb, after the flower has faded. So you don’t want to cut the foliage until mid-summer, if at all.

Choose a spot with at least half-day sun. Under deciduous trees and shrubs works well: they would be lovely near Indian Plum, that apple-green native shrub with the tiny white blossoms perked up like rabbit ears. Under evergreens, they tend not to last as many years.

Consider that they are heliotropic and will turn toward that part of the sky with the strongest light exposure. You don’t want to place them so they’ve got their backs turned when you’re viewing them!

Here’s a wonderful mass planting of daffodils on 87th, that road that links Tramp Harbor and Cemetary Road (see photo, above) Most are planted in clumps of 10-12, with runs of different colors. That clump has been in place for at least ten years. 

And on Wax Orchard at the Daffodil Barn (photo, top), some flowers still poke their heads above the north meadow from a planting at least 20 years old. The website of the American Daffodil Society claims that older varieties, properly planted, can last 30-50 years.

Getting Daffodils

Country Store has bulbs on the front porch—varieties “Dutch Master” and “Giant Daffodil Mix”— for 70¢ a bulb. The grocery stores have bags in stock, as does True Value. (Kathy’s Corner isn’t carrying bulbs, and DIG is only open on the weekends these days.)

Back in the 80s, I bought my first few hundred (!!) daffodil bulbs from Roozengaarde Bulbs in Mt. Vernon. They’re now the Washington Bulb Company, website: www.tulips.com. At the time, their bulbs were HUGE, multi-nosed creatures that gave a LOT of bloom for the money.

So if your property borders one of our main roads and you’ve got a grassy bank along the road shoulder, consider crowning it with some spring sunshine—daffodils!