Name: Narcissus poeticus aka poets narcissus

Type of Plant: This hardy, white narcissus aka daffodil is a bulb that gets planted in October on Cape Cod and will return from year to year every spring.

Why I Love This Plant: How many ways can you love a narcissus? It turns out, that there are many! First, this poet’s narcissus is a favorite for me because the flower are fragrant. Secondly, I love the fact that this is a great spring bulb for naturalizing, since it self-seeds and spreads. The flowers are also great for cutting and including in spring bouquets.

A Word to the Wise: Plant these bulbs about a foot apart in full sun. If your soil is sandy, apply an inch of compost over the entire area before planting and for the first couple of years afterwards to beef up the health of the area. An application of Bulb-tone in April is also good in sandy areas. In locations where the soil is already rich or clay, you don’t have to do much other than let these plants grow and thrive without tending. Don’t cut them down in the spring, but let the foliage die back naturally and enrich the soil from the top down.

Crisp white flowers with yellow centers that are rimmed in red. These spring flowering bulbs are the definition of happy! As the package shows, these are good in full sun or part-shade, deer resistant, good for bees and fragrant.

In order for narcissus to naturalize like this, you need to allow them to stay without deadheading or cutting down into late June.

One of the highlights of being a garden writer is visiting properties like this on Martha’s Vineyard. I was here when writing A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard, and blessed to see this field of poets narcissus that were the decedents of some planted well over a hundred years ago!