A passion for Narcissus 'Passionale'

Narcissus 'Passionale' (click photo to enlarge)

Photo courtesy of DaffSeek and Carlos van der Veek

In his weekly Earthman columns Henry Mitchell, famed writer for the Washington Post, made gardens sound like magical places whose creation was within our grasp.

He cast a spell over me, and all my gardening choices were ruled by his preferences. I love daffodils and soaked up his opinions on the subject.

Here's what he had to say about Narcissus 'Passionale' in his column called Daffodil Time:

There is a pink-crowned white flower, 'Passionale', which is, not to split hairs about it, supremely beautiful. ... I hope any gardener will try at least a few of the most beautiful sorts, like 'Passionale'. Even one bulb.

Ever the obedient reader, I bought 20 'Passionale' bulbs and planted them in front of my house. He was, of course, absolutely right. If I could have only one garden book it would be the collection of his columns, The Essential Earthman.

Henry Mitchell became ill and lingered painfully for many months. He died in 1993, planting daffodils with a neighbor. I'm sad Henry Mitchell is not here to attend the National Convention of the American Daffodil Society in Murphys, California next week. I'd love to know which daffodils he would find "supremely beautiful" these days.

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Dogwood Daze

Henry Mitchell called the dogwood, "the last tree God made." 

Undeniably lovely in each of the four seasons, dogwoods create a fairyland atmosphere in springtime. Enchanting in our gardens, I hope you can also get into the woods to see Cornus florida, Eastern Dogwood or Cornus nuttallii, Western Dogwood, in their layered branching, wild beauty.

Snowdrops in Scotland

Here's a favorite Henry Mitchell quotation on snowdrops:

[F]loribunda roses can become boring after a while; so can marigolds. They are nice enough; it's just that after a few months you wish they would look different. It is otherwise when the snowdrop blooms. Wow. Look at that. Right through the snow. Nobody ever gets bored with snowdrops or crocuses.

from Timing Is the Key, One Man's Garden  

We have no snowdrops yet in Northern California. There is a lovely story about the Scottish Snowdrop Festival; the photos of drifts of blooms by winding streams are enough to make one add that festival to the Life List of gardens to see.

Any snowdrop watchers out there?

To seed or not to seed?

There is no annual tradition of annuals in my family. My mother is a great rosarian and can talk hybrid teas and aged steer manure till the cows come home, but springtime seed trays were not a regular feature of my upbringing.

Should I be starting from seeds or not? I cannot rely on adopted lineage for guidance, as two of my favorite garden experts go opposite ways. Henry Mitchell waxed poetic about sowing seeds indoors (but this was a man who could make painting garden stakes in the basement sound like a numinous experience). 

The alternate point of view is from Dianne Benson, who draws a line in the sandy loam and refuses to cross over into propagation land. And she has a point--the trays, the lights, the schedules, the hassle. It's enough to make you wait until May and pay $10.95 for a moonflower in a one-gallon pot.

Also, there's the whole process of thinning that is so blithely discussed. Call me a wimp (and then do it again, because it's true), but I think it's rather unkind to pull up a lot of plants just because they're smaller than their peers. A few weeks earlier one had prepared new abodes for them, invited them in, encouraged their growth with light and water--now if they lag behind a bit, YANK, they're dead. 

Seems a bit harsh.

But that is, in fact, how all those one-gallon moonflowers at the nursery were raised. And complaining about thinning them myself is like the time my 6 year-old granddaughter saw a fisherman with a live fish on his line and cried out, That's so mean! Why doesn't he just buy fish at the grocery store?

You can see the end of the story, can't you? I'll space the moonflower seeds far apart so I don't have to thin them, get them all safely into pots on the deck, enjoy them as they flourish in their viny way, and then knock them off when I forget to water them during a heat wave in August.

There's more than one way to be harsh to a plant. I'd better stay busy with the watering can this summer.