"N" is for Narcissus: Don't tell the Deer!

There’s little as disillusioning as waking up on a spring morning to find that your tulips have been “mown” overnight by the local deer, or that the rosebuds, which were just about open, had been pinched by the same perps. For that reason, and because they are poisonous, narcissi, the botanical name for the more commonly called daffodil, are generously planted in our gardens.

This photo includes one of every variety in my yard. In the 20 years we have lived here, I would say I’ve easily planted more than 1,000 bulbs, which have not necessarily multiplied as promised. A posting at the American Daffodil Society provides 13 possible things I might have done wrong; for starters, I think I’ll try feeding them.

There are also 13 different descriptive divisions of daffodils; miniatures share these same descriptive divisions but simply have smaller blooms. Pictured are examples of nine of these divisions: trumpet, large cupped, small cupped, double, cyclamineus (it looks like it’s facing a cyclone), jonquilla and poeticus (both of which are usually fragrant), split cupped, and wild. Missing are triandrus; tazetta (paperwhites), bulbocodium, and miscellaneous.

I’m interested in learning what others have to say about narcissus. Do you call them daffodils? Or Narcissus? And how to you pluralize the word?

Oh, and about the deer. Only the bulb and leaves are poisonous. But, please, let it be our secret!

Visit Mrs. Nesbitt's blog to see the work of other Alphabet Wednesday Participants.