Heirloom Daffodil 'Surprise Sunshine' - 1 bulb

This bulb looks very similar to the heirloom 'Lent Lily,' but it isn't! We are cleaning up areas to prepare to plant other bulbs, and we dug a couple of crates of this one. We aren't quite sure what it is so we are offering them to you for $0.50 a bulb. You can order as many or as few as you like. A good thing to do is combine these with other bulb orders to have a little "Surprise" in your garden. 

 The Bloom: If you think it looks a lot like the Lent Lily, you would be right....long petals, deep trumpet center, and frilly-edged trumpet. So how do we know that this is NOT a Lent Lily (pictured below)? One way to check and see if your bloom is a true lent lily is to close the petals on the trumpet center. If the trumpet extends beyond the length of the petals, you have one strong clue that you might have a Lent lily. The "Surprise Sunshine" (do you like the name we made up?) has petals that are longer than the trumpet, the petals are a little more round instead of long, and the overall bloom is a little smaller. The color is amazing though!

 Size: This was blooming at the same time as the Lent Lily this last week here. The cold weather from the week before didn't seemt o bother them at all. They are such an early bloomer in February and March that the cold weather almost seems to keep them growing low to the ground. 

 Easy to Grow: This bulb wasn't planted or tended to so you know that it will not require any special attention. It will spread easily as it naturalizes an area. As long as you plant them where they will receive 6+ hours of sunlight during the winter months, you can honestly simply plant the bulbs and forget about them. Plant the bulbs 2-3x the depth of the bulb. In other words, if the bulb is 1 inch tall, plant it 2-3 inches deep. 

 What does “in the green” mean?

In the summer and fall, we ship dry bulbs that many consumers are familiar with. However, in the spring we ship some flower bulbs with their foliage still on them, having dug them right after their bloom. When the customer receives them, the foliage is in the process of drying down naturally. Plant the bulbs, with foliage and all in the ground and let the foliage turn brown and die back naturally.   Another option is to not plant the flower bulbs and store the bulbs with the foliage in a cool, dark, and well ventilated spot, and most importantly let the foliage die down naturally. In other words, DON'T cut the foliage of bulbs when you receive them in the green. The browning and dying back of the foliage is the natural process of the bulb sending food and energy from the leaves down into the bulbs for their summer dormancy.

I thought daffodil bulbs are normally shipped in the fall? We grow many of our own daffodils here on our farm, and while it is unconventional in the United States, it is common to have bulbs shipped in the green in other parts of the world. We grow many of our own heirloom daffodils that we originally collected from old gardens on former homesites. Shipping these in the green allows us to:

1)      Ship them during the bloom season when most gardeners are thinking of and remembering to plant daffodils

2)      Ensures correct identification of the flower bulb. These are heirlooms and buying and receiving the right genetic selections is important to having varieties that are perennials and will naturalize in your garden

3)      Allows us to offer more bulbs are lower prices to customers

Remember that bulbs shipped in the green are coming to an end of their growth cycle. You can expect:

1)      The foliage to yellow and die down naturally

2)      The bulb to be dormant in the summer and early fall

3)      Roots to start growing in mid fall

4)      Foliage appears next January

5)      Bulbs to bloom next February and March