Varieties that do well in the Shade.

On my property I have lots of gardens.  Some in full sun others in the woods with very little  sun.  I have planted various varieties in the woods and have found some varieties do quite well in full shade.  Others do terrible and just stagnate or die off.

Is their any documentation on which varieties do well in shade?  This would be a new piece of information that could be added to DaffSeek.

Jet fire and  Little Gem both multiply readily for me in WA state in the woods.

Any others that people have had luck with in the woods?  

6 comments for “Varieties that do well in the Shade.

  1. Bill,

    I live in a hot weather area on the Coastal Northeast North Carolina.  This state has recognized the fact that the heat and hot weather is not good for daffodils as far back as the 1930s when cut-flower farming was big time in NC.  They recommended a cover crop to help protect the bulbs from the weather in the middle of the summer.  I have been using a few shade trees, and mulch to do the same, however, like you I find that some daffodils just don’t like it down here and other love it.

    I have some success with growing certain daffodils in the shade. However some things like the Div 5 miniatures and species, love to be baked and to go totally dry.  I find that the Jonquil varieties Div 7, Tazetta Div 8 and bulbocodiums Div 10 love it here as well.  Late daffodils and whites, well they don’t care for our heat.

    One just has to get to know their daffodils and how to grow them in the gardens where each one lives and gardens.  I don’t think that the uniform or standard method of growing daffodils works everywhere.

    Clay

  2. I’ve grown Itzim 6 Y-R, with which I won an ADS Gold this year, in mostly shade (maybe 4 hrs of dappled sun) for the last 7 years. It multiplies yearly.  Rapture 6 Y-Y, planted next to it, has noticeably fallen off in the last 2 years.

    Darrin

     

  3. Hi Bill,

    I’ve grown daffodils in the semi-woods for years, that is, the trees are limbed up so as the sun moves around, the daffodils will get some sun.  If your woods are not evergreen trees, then I think if you plant early varieties, you should be ok.  Darrin mentioned ‘Itzim’  That does well here, too.  ‘Rapture’ planted in full sun dies out for me here.  So it’s gonna be a learning process.  Try some of the common ones like ‘Ice Follies’ or ‘Carlton’.  If you’re digging your bulbs, try a few of some of those you have a lot of, and see what happens.  You might have to give them some extra fertilizer, since the bulbs are competing with the trees.

    Mary Lou

  4. All of my cultivars are partially shaded and seem to be doing well. I garden in west-central Louisiana. I think that the further south one gardens, the more important it is to provide some shade.  None of my daffodils get more than 4 hours of direct sun.  

     

  5. Those of you who have come to our garden in the woods for either the 1997 or the 2011 ADS conventions noticed the Wister planting along the driveway–shade, but oak trees (natural mulch),’ These are never watered and maybe fertilized once, if that. This year, three years down, I had large, floriferous, longblooming clumps of Rapture, Sweetness, Golden Aura, Kokopelli, Falconet, and Golden Echo. (no, not a Wister, YET!) Right now, Stratosphere and Tripartite are in full bloom.

    Good idea–plant some of a cultivar in a sunny location, or the sunniest you have, and some in shade–treat just alike—and keep records.

    On the other hand, my sunniest bed is a 70-foot row inside the picket fence garden, where I planted only Division 7.  This bed was excavated and re-worked in the year 2000 and nothing has been done since–no fertilizer, no water except rainfall, no digging and dividing. Most of it, 85% is still thick and blooming.

    As Allen Lacy told us, “You garden where you live.” But it helps if you pay attention to what works best.

    Loyce McKenzie      we are right on line of 7b-8a

     

  6. Not all “shade” is equal. You can plant under species of trees that drop their leaves with the first frost and or first freeze to allow sunshine to reach under them early winter, BUT you also need to look at tree species that will leaf out late spring if you want long term blooms and multiplication of “naturalized” clumps of bulbs.

    I plant under pecans, black walnuts, paulownia as these have fairly deep roots, their leaves fall after the first freeze, the leaves quickly break down in the southern states over winter or if you mow over these leaves right after they fall they will shatter completely and disappear quickly on the surface of the ground. These recycle quickly into food for earth worms that till the soils while they convert the minerals in these leaves from the deep rooted trees, bringing up each year trace elements that a daffodil root would never be able to reach on older farm lands, especially old worn out crop lands.

    Look at what compass direction you plant also. South sides of larger trees planted from the trunk on out to the drip edge of that trees limbs, that throw a huge shadow from a large canopy will allow full sunshine to reach under the limbs and feed the daffodil foliage all winter and into late spring. Just look at the sun’s angle now, look to where you have daffodils in buds and realize that MOST of the food has been made by these daffodils by the time they bloom so that the bulb can survive another year. BUT they truly need another 6 to 8 weeks of sunshine after they bloom in order to set bigger blooms, more blooms per number of bulbs planted and then to multiple bulb wise/number wise they need to have more hours of sun until the foliage dies down naturally.

    It also depends on what weeds and or grasses are growing where bulbs are planted! Bulbs out in the middle of a winter grass pasture often get LESS sunshine due to thick winter weeds and or rye grasses than a clump of daffodils that are growing in a deciduous forest with nothing but dead leaf litter around the clumps. Also if it is dry in your area on average, winter to early spring then weeds and winter grasses will compete for hard to reach soil nutrients as well as a water source. In summer, forest tree roots will pull up excess water from the soils below and around the daffodil clumps and they might reduce excess water but they will definitely shade the soil and reduce the upper levels of soil temperatures as compared to a bare soil daffodil planting out in full sun and or even under a very short green growing weed mulch and or say under lawn grasses.

    Again look at your local trees in the forested areas you wish to naturalize bulbs in. Cull non-valuable trees in “forest type plantings”, cull out poorly branching trees to reduce tree root competition and open up the canopy over all, about every five years. Maximize your forest to provide food and habitat for wildlife and for the daffodil bulbs. This also applies to the trees in your yard or more importantly on say a single acre or two of land. Thin out trees to get the biggest bang for the most species of diversity in the plant and animal world.

    A simple experiment in how shade affects the growth and or blooming of daffodils under trees is to plant four groupings of the same bulbs under a variety of trees on your property. Plant one grouping on the east, west, north and south sides, near a larger tree trunk. Move out to the mid point between the trunk and the drip line of the canopy and repeat the four points of the compass planting. Then move out to the very drip line of the tree and repeat once again the four points of the compass planting. Take photos each year at various times of the growing season. Do this for four years and or longer. Then dig and divide and count bulbs and compare bulbs sizes, bloom count from year to year and also total number of bulbs harvested.

    Daffodils are solar collectors, that is the only way they survive by converting sunshine into food.

    As far as what varieties of daffodils do better in shade depends on your winter summer temperatures. Daffodils evolved at certain temperature extremes for the various species. Look at daffseek and look up parentage of these. Most jonquils and paper whites will NOT live for long in Minnesota because they are not adapted to the cold. Ditto for many poets and northern bred varieties are not adapted to the Gulf coastal states and or Florida. Look at latitude where the wild species are found and their elevations in mountainous regions, again look to see what breeders used for the very first crosses as this indicates general heat and or cold adaptation so you have an idea of the maximum soil temperature your varieties can expect to survive in. Just because a variety will survive in the south does not mean it will ever bloom. I grow the daffodil Texas, have seen bud form and swell now each spring for 25 years, still waiting on the “perfect weather” season for it to actually open and bloom.  Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Same latitude as Tripoli, Libya

Comments are closed.