A hardy survivor!

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Last month I was reading in ‘The Garden’ (the magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society) about an old variety of daffodil, Narcissus 'Telamonius Plenus'. Apparently this was thought to have been introduced to Britain by a Flemish man called Vincent Sion, who documented it first flowering in 1620. He showed it to his acquaintances, trying to find out where he had got it from because he couldn’t remember who had given it to him. Neither could anyone else, but they were intrigued, and so was a man called George Wilmer who gave it his own name and popularised it as ‘Mr Wilmer’s Great Double Daffodil’. These daffodils are reputed to be very hardy, resilient and persistent and often pop up in old gardens. Well funnily enough, a few days later I was at our place in Wales and guess what? The daffodils had just started to flower and I’m pretty sure they are this old variety. Especially as most of them are not in the garden at all but in the hedges around a small paddock. They’ve been there as long as I can remember and have probably been there since the house was built in about 1898. I will pay more attention to them now! You can read the full story here if you are interested https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-inspiration/plants-we-love/the-resilient-daffodil All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.