Daffodil Season Is in Full Swing at Rotary Botanical Gardens

If you've visited the gardens recently, you've probably noticed that something new seems to be blooming every single day. The Hellebores are still flourishing, the flowering trees are starting to wake up, and the Cherry Dogwood, Magnolia, and Forsythia are all beginning to pop. The garden is very much a living thing right now, and we're watching it change in real time.

This week, we thought it was the perfect time to let the daffodils take center stage.

At Rotary Botanical Gardens, daffodils are everywhere. Nearly every garden on the property contains some variety of daffodil, and it's common to find multiple cultivars growing side by side in the same bed. We grow over 35 cultivars in total, and they fall into five of the 13 recognized daffodil divisions: Trumpet, Large Cup, Small Cup, Double, and Miniature.

Daffodils (Narcissus) are perennial bulbs planted in the fall to bloom the following spring. With over 27,000 cultivars recognized worldwide, there is no shortage of variety, and that shows here at RBG. You'll find them large and small, in a wide range of color combinations including yellow, orange, white, and everything in between. The clumping miniature daffodils tend to be guest favorites, and it's easy to see why, their small stature and cheerful clusters are hard to resist.

One of the personal favorites of our horticulture team is the Rip Van Winkle Daffodil, a shaggy, starburst-shaped double bloom that looks like nothing else in the garden. A few are open now, but the larger groupings haven't quite hit their peak yet. We'll be featuring those in a future post when the bigger collections come into their own.

As of this week, we're approaching peak bloom but still have a ways to go. Last year, the daffodils bloomed through the end of April before rain and cold cut the season short.

Whether this year's display lasts longer, we'll just have to wait and see.

Come take a walk and find your moment in the gardens.

Thank you to our volunteer, Melissa Lauer and her team for creating this lovely report each week.