Here's what was blooming in my garden last week.
I bought a new camellia this year, a hybrid camellia from New Zealand called 'High Fragrance'. I was curious about a fragrant camellia, because I love camellias and I love fragrant plants. The fragrance can be quite subtle. I noticed it most on a day when it got into the 70s. It has
Camellia japonica as one parent, and looks similar, though just different enough to satisfy curiosity.
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| Camellia 'High Fragrance' |
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| Camellia 'High Fragrance' |
A lot of daffodils are in bloom. Actually, the daffodil season is about to be over. The only one that hasn't bloomed yet is 'Sir Winston Churchill', though it may also be a year when Twin Sisters decides to bloom, which usually happens closer to May.
'White Lady' is one of my favorites and is blooming now. It's a historic cultivar, and a small-cup daffodil, too, which usually don't do so well in the South.
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| Narcissus 'White Lady' |
'Matador' is also blooming. It's new for me this year, having acquired it last fall. It's well known in the daffodil world for its unique genetics: a tetraploid with equal parts standard daffodil and tazetta lineage. This makes it especially valuable for hybridizing. In fact, several of the daffodils I already own are progeny of 'Matador': 'Falconet', 'Martinette', and 'Bittern'.
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| Narcissus 'Matador' |
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| Narcissus 'Matador' |
Last but not least, the super-vigorous 'Silver Chimes' is blooming. It's a massive daffodil with huge bulbs, robust foliage, and many flower stems. I picked some before a thunderstorm and brought them inside:
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| Narcissus 'Silver Chimes' |
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| Narcissus 'Silver Chimes' |
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| Narcissus 'Silver Chimes' |
They last about a week in a vase.
