Daffodil question
- To: g*@hort.net
- Subject: [CHAT] Daffodil question
- From: A*@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 16:30:51 EDT
Marge, I will address this to you since you are geographically the nearest to
the area in question, though I invite anyone's opinion. We just returned
from a much-needed week of birding at Bombay Hook and Chincoteague. Spring was
not as far advanced as we had hoped or expected, or as our notes of previous
trips indicated that it had been in other years. However we did happen on one
unusual sight (site, too). The Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge lies to
the east of Dover, Delaware, and is a large area of marshes and wetlands
interspersed with fields and woods. Adjoining the refuge is Allee House, an
eighteenth century farmhouse that has been either restored or preserved. Since it is
open to the public only on weekend afternoons, and we always schedule our trips
during to week, we have never been able to visit it. However, there is a
back road from the edge of the refuge to the house that offers interesting
birding territory so we always take at least one run down that way. Several years
we have noticed daffodils growing at one of the overlook sites beside an
impoundment, but assumed they had been planted by park staff or volunteers. I will
continue that assumption since these are fairly "modern" daffs - large
cream-colored blooms with darker small cups. This year when we drove down the Allee
House road we were astonished to find the woods full of daffodils, too.
There was one area perhaps 30 feet wide and deep that was just a solid mass of
daffs, and they appeared at intervals throughout a stretch of maybe half a mile.
These appeared to be rather small-flowered golden trumpet types - like small
'King Alfreds' but not that large. My DH assured me that there had once been
another house there, and perhaps he is right. I'd say these are pretty
old-fashioned bulbs. But my question is this. These have obviously spread much
farther than from an ancient door-yard garden. How do they spread in such an
environment? By seed? Or do animals spread them? They are poisonous, so would
not be eaten, but I suppose the bulbs could be dug and moved, but can't
imagine why. The area has very sandy soil, but the woods are fairly open. There is
a field on the other side of the road - farmers plant millet and other grains
for the birds under contract to the refuge - but the area where the daffs
grow doesn't look as if it has been cultivated for a generation at least - there
are some pretty large deciduous trees - sweetgum, holly, etc. and a real mat
of honeysuckle. It would be shaded in the summer but is sunny at this end of
the year, and I know daffs will grow in such situations. I also know they
spread, but if I don't dig and divide mine every five or six years they just crowd
themselves right out of the ground. I'm really intrigued by this so would
appreciate your thoughts.
Auralie
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