Daffodil mystery
 

This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........

Daffodil mystery
 

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message ...
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........



lol good point

Daffodil mystery
 

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message ...
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........

A few years ago, West Sussex CC got hold of thousands of daffodil bulbs and
gave them to the gardening classes at schools around the County, who went
out and planted them on the verges, on roundabouts, etc. They were given a
great deal of freedom as to where they could plant and I assume the odd
isolated groups or individuals I see are from that planting. Certainly there
are none on roads that have been built since that year, but, if there is a
natural reason, it could be that they have not been around long enough for
it to come into play.

Colin Bignell

Daffodil mystery
 

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message

Snip . . . in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? . . . Snip

Perchance there was a daffy seed collector - I've collected half a pound of
bluebell seeds and scattered them on verges - and it's very easy to put a
few seeds in lots of pellets of clay/peat mixture. The car's passenger can
throw one every now and then on to the roadside verge. Not all will
flourish but, as you say, "maybe two".

Regards

Geoff.

Daffodil mystery
 

nightjar wrote:

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message ...
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........

A few years ago, West Sussex CC got hold of thousands of daffodil bulbs and
gave them to the gardening classes at schools around the County, who went
out and planted them on the verges, on roundabouts, etc. They were given a
great deal of freedom as to where they could plant and I assume the odd
isolated groups or individuals I see are from that planting. Certainly there
are none on roads that have been built since that year, but, if there is a
natural reason, it could be that they have not been around long enough for
it to come into play.

Colin Bignell

Well they've been to Scotland with them. That's what I call extra-curricular !

Daffodil mystery
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 10:55:04 +0100, Joe Bloggs wrote:

This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........

There are irregular clumps of daffodils in places along the country
lane which leads to our house. They seem to be the result of people
dumping garden rubbish, presumably including the contents of pots of
bulbs.

What I really want to know is why they flourish with none of the
recommended dead-heading or feeding!

Regards, VivienB

Daffodil mystery
 

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message ...
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........



there are several sites around our area where they mark
a death on the road at that point at the appropriate time of year

--
Jill Bowis

http://www.poultryscotland.co.uk http://www.henhouses.co.uk
http://www.domesticducks.co.uk http://www.poultry-books.co.uk
http://www.kintaline.co.uk/cottage

Daffodil mystery
 

nightjar wrote
"Joe Bloggs" wrote
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather
over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you
can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a
solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road.

snip

A few years ago, West Sussex CC got hold of thousands of daffodil
bulbs and
gave them to the gardening classes at schools around the County, who
went
out and planted them on the verges, on roundabouts, etc. They were
given a
great deal of freedom as to where they could plant ..........
Colin Bignell

I heard a wonderful story recently about some prisoners who were given
a similar task.......
They planted all sorts of four letter words on a motorway slope
.........:~))

Jenny

Daffodil mystery
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 17:12:19 +0100, Joe Bloggs wrote:

nightjar wrote:

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message ...
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........

A few years ago, West Sussex CC got hold of thousands of daffodil bulbs and
gave them to the gardening classes at schools around the County, who went
out and planted them on the verges, on roundabouts, etc. They were given a
great deal of freedom as to where they could plant and I assume the odd
isolated groups or individuals I see are from that planting. Certainly there
are none on roads that have been built since that year, but, if there is a
natural reason, it could be that they have not been around long enough for
it to come into play.

Colin Bignell

Well they've been to Scotland with them. That's what I call extra-curricular !

Joe Bloggs is obviously well informed with regards his local history
and what his gaffers in West Sussex got up to in the past.

Perhaps it was a good idea that was adopted the length and breadth
of the land (for a good idea it certainly was).

Are daffs native I wonder - can I be bothered to look it up? They
are now it seems, even if only in isolated colonies.

Huss

Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

Daffodil mystery
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 16:44:24 +0100, "geoff"
wrote:


"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message

Snip . . . in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? . . . Snip

Perchance there was a daffy seed collector - I've collected half a pound of
bluebell seeds and scattered them on verges - and it's very easy to put a
few seeds in lots of pellets of clay/peat mixture. The car's passenger can
throw one every now and then on to the roadside verge. Not all will
flourish but, as you say, "maybe two".

Regards

Geoff.

Kind growers of C. sativa should keep all the seeds from an
unfortunate hermie and scatter them all round the countryside.

It is, after all, a plant most beneficial to others, not at all
greedy, tolerant of abuse, provides an extraordinarily effective
intermediate canopy for shade and then politely disappears for the
winter.

Of course the other effect would be to rob the plant of all it's
pecuniary value - which does not sit well with the nature of one of
its seductions.

Children soon get bored with whirling around to give themselves the
sensation of giddiness.

The Medicine Man should not have revealed his secret. Not all
knowledge is, either of itself or in its revealing, necessarily good.

S'cuse the conceit.

Huss
Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

Daffodil mystery
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 18:30:17 +0100, VivienB
wrote:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 10:55:04 +0100, Joe Bloggs wrote:

This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........

There are irregular clumps of daffodils in places along the country
lane which leads to our house. They seem to be the result of people
dumping garden rubbish, presumably including the contents of pots of
bulbs.

What I really want to know is why they flourish with none of the
recommended dead-heading or feeding!

Regards, VivienB

I don't think the species daffs really need a lot of food other than
that which they will find in the naturally rotting vegatation where
they are found.

As for the dead heading - that's what they do to produce seed and
spread themselves around a bit! The reason gardeners dead head is to
prevent the enery going towards scattered seed but instead into a
vegetatively reproduced clump of bulbs underground. Daffs are at their
best in clumps, the more established, extensive and unregimented, the
better. How much room do you have and how nifty are you with the
mower?

One thing I have _never_ _ever_ liked is daffs in rose beds.

I knew this thread would be a corker when I read the first message
from Joe Bloggs, and, dear oh dear, I've provided some more hits for
usenet searches on "C. sativa".

I found a couple of the Anemone blanda by the way. They really had a
struggle with the grape hyacinths and small bright yellow wallflowers
which I think may be from the "Wildflower" section of the seed
shelves. These wallflowers are very different from the other ones I
have which have more voluptuous shades and promptly fall over only to
rise up gamely. It's not as if the flowers are that heavy. Maybe they
don't like being on the North side of a three foot wall (otherwise
unshaded). I think they came from the Plantation House Victorian
Gardens so thank you that kind person who prompted a link to identify
wallflower seedlings. I think they would do better to find their own
place in the border to germinate and then probably moved to a sunnier
spot. I'm keeping my eye out for them now. I don't know whether there
will be any from last summers scattering or whether, if I hadn't
carelessly pulled them up as weeds, they will be easily recogniseable
as small plants now. I think I have found one or two.

Huss

Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.

Daffodil mystery
 

"Joe Bloggs" wrote in message ...
This year have enjoyed going for a few runs in the good weather over
Easter and would like someone to explain to me how it is that you can be
on country roads, in the middle of nowhere and you'll find a solitary
daffodil flowering at the side of the road. Just the one, maybe two, not
usually more. Then, a few miles down the road, exactly the same. Who
does it ? Is there a phantom daffodil planter out there who plants them
on grass verges in the dead of night ? Is it the birds ? I've never seen
birds pecking the seed heads off daffys. Dropping bulbs from a great
height ?
Now I've noticed it, I see it all over the place. I'll be glad when the
season's over as it's driving me mad ? Answers on a postcard please
to..........



Narcissus pseudonarcissus is a native plant.

--
Regards,
Alan.

Preserve wildlife - Pickle a SQUIRREL to reply.

Daffodil mystery
 

"Hussein M."
Are daffs native I wonder - can I be bothered to look it up? They
are now it seems, even if only in isolated colonies.
Huss

Yes Huss, they are native plants :
http://www.bluebellbulbs.co.uk/nativebulbs.htm

Jenny

Daffodil mystery
 

Hussein M. wrote:

Are daffs native I wonder - can I be bothered to look it up?


Yes but not all.

DAFFODIL Narcissus pseudonarcissus Blodyn Mis Mawrth The main daffodil
species of Britain, the one that impressed Wordsworth and known as the Lent
Lily. A short plant of 8"-12" with pale petals and deep yellow corona, it
is found in damp woods and grassland, where it naturalises readily.

Others are imports or hybrids.

Steve R

Daffodil mystery
 

VivienB wrote:

What I really want to know is why they flourish with none of the
recommended dead-heading or feeding!



They managed before gardeners!