A friend of mine has asked for help selecting a daffodil to plant. She volunteers with an elementary school planting a “mythology garden” connecting the topic the children study in the classroom with the outdoor activity in the garden. Last year they planted ‘Thalia’–a great success as the students read about the character and enjoyed the daffodils. She asks what daffodil to plant this year. She’d like it to be showy enough to be seen as cars drive past the school, not too expensive, and it should thrive in rather poor soil, zone 7.
There seems to be a paucity of Greek mythological names in daffodils. The only one I’ve thought of so far even vaguely appropriate is ‘Acropolis’. Can anyone help with suggestions?
Janet,
Acropolis would be a good one to plant. As a double it provides an interesting flower. It is tall and flowers above the leaves. I find it hard to kill when in a naturalised situation.
What about Camelot, Excalibur and Kokopelli? Perhaps Merlin and Ariel come in here too.
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Dave
Hi Janet,
We posted your request for suggestions on the ADS Facebook page this morning. Brent & Becky’s Bulbs have asked that you call them for assistance with the elementary school planting. :-) Their toll-free number is (877) 661-2852.
Hope this is helpful…
From the following links and Daffseek, here are another 50 or so cultivars with Greek mythological people named: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures#Immortals). There must be many more if one would extend the search for creatures, places and events.
4 with “Ethereal” in the name(from Aether), Aeolus, Andromeda, Aphrodite, Aphrodite’s dream, Apollo, Apollo Gold, Artemis, Atalanta, Athena, Atlas (and Atlas Gold), Aura, Chaos, Dione, Erebus (4), Eros (2), Hades (and Golden Hades), Helios (2), Hera, Hermes, Hermione (2), Hyperion, Leto, Medea, Metis, Midas (6), Orion, Pallas (3), Pandora (2), Phoebe too, Pluto, Polyxena, Pontes, Prometheus, Rhea, Selene, Typhoon (From Typhon), Zeus
Most of these are older cultivars, many might not be around anymore, but as an academic exercise it was quite fun. Maybe it is not the paucity of names, but rather our poor knowledge of mythology !
Thank you to everyone who responded to my request for suggestions. As Christiaan correctly points out, the rich treasure trove of Greek mythology names has been well used by daffodil registrants; however, most were used in the early or mid-1900s for varieties no longer in commerce in the US. Do you have any of these in South Africa?
The leading suggestions have been Acropolis and Narcissus poeticus, suggested by Sara Van Beck. David, I agree with your evaluation of Acropolis as a good choice. So far, this school project is all about Greek mythology; they haven’t branched out into other cultures, though the idea of Kokopelli might work into their Native American studies next year.
Thanks to DaffNet and Facebook, Jay Hutchins at Brent and Becky’s Bulbs noticed this request and they have generously offered to donate the Acropolis bulbs for the school’s use. I appreciate their support of this youth daffodil project.