Celebrating Our Horticultural Heroes

What flower springs to mind when you think of Mother’s Day? For me, it’s daffodils! I remember when I was younger, we made daffodil cards at school with yellow tissue paper petals and an orange trumpet made of card. I love a cheery bunch of daffodils in the house – it makes me feel like spring is finally here and brighter days are ahead!

I can be a bit fussy about daffodils in my garden though. Sure, the bright yellow heads of a common Narcissus can be a welcome treat along the side of the road in spring, but in my borders, I need things to be more interesting and delicate. For example, Narcissus ‘Thalia’ is a lovely example– she is pure white and looks beautiful in dappled shade, suiting a woodland setting perfectly. ‘Minnow’ is a sweet, little rounded daff with very pale-yellow petals and a lemon trumpet! Another favourite is ‘Pipit’ – a bit of a rebel, breaking the rules of what we have come to expect from the colours of a daffodil.

Quite often, when I venture out to the garden with my children, they run off and bounce all their energy out on the trampoline while I do a bit of gardening – the perfect scenario. However, the other day, my little boy (who is nearly 3), decided he wanted to do some gardening with me. We planted some seeds and then he picked up my spade and attempted to dig. Before I knew it, he had chopped a beautiful white hellebore clean off its roots. He picked up the severed plant and handed it to me with a smile as if he was giving me a beautiful bunch of flowers, which I suppose he was in a way… For some reason, I started to explain to a 3-year-old why we can’t chop all mummy’s plants down until I realised this was a ridiculous venture, thanked him for the bunch of hellebores and hid the spade. He has now been promoted to ‘Worm Saver’.