Creating a natural French country setting surrounding a house in the countryside
takes some deliberate thought about how to achieve that style.
Part of the reason we built a house on two acres outside any city limits
was to have a yard that was natural and environmentally friendly.
We wanted a yard that required 1] as little as possible supplementary watering,
2] no pesticides, and 3] minimal fertilization.
One of the ways to include flowers in such a country landscape
is to plant daffodils, one of the best bulbs for naturalizing that
can survive almost entirely on natural rainfall and once yearly fertilizing.
Scores of beautiful low-cost daffodil varieties are readily available from nurseries,
including many more options than the well-known yellow jonquils.
More than fifteen years ago, I planted twenty-five Erlicheer Daffodils
in the front yard under mature wide-spread oak trees.
The Erlicheer variety has multiple stems per plant with
as many as six to eight DOUBLE white blossoms on each stem.
Can you see why I love these?
Each spring these are among the first daffodils to bloom, emerging by early February
and blooming around the third week of February.
They make excellent cut flowers to bring inside and their heavenly fragrance fills the air.
Over the years they have multiplied and require little maintenance.
They grow in a grassy plot, not a separate flower bed, and the most important
thing for next year's blooms is to allow the spent flowers to "ripen"
and for the stems to naturally die before mowing the grass.
No problem out here in the country.
Inside, a metal planter filled with fake Erlicheer daffodils sits in the kitchen sunspace.
The fabric blooms are excellent reproductions of the real ones growing in the yard.
Artificial flowers get more and more realistic each year.
From a distance it is hard to tell that these are not live bulbs.
Do you grow Erlicheer daffodils or some other white daffodil variety?
I am always interested in new plants to add to our little spot in the country.
White daffodils, not yellow, are my favorites for creating a natural landscape
in the countryside, far from manicured lawns.
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