Narcissus Edna Earl - Narcisse, Jonquille

The 'Edna Earl' daffodil is an old Dutch variety with large, fragrant white flowers featuring a small central crown that is orange edged with red. They are reminiscent of poet's daffodils but are much broader. Its late flowering, vigour, and reliability in the garden earn it a place in spring borders, edging, and lightly mown lawns. This daffodil also produces excellent flowers for fresh cut flower arrangements.

This plant belongs to the Amaryllidaceae family. It is a bulbous perennial, or geophyte: all its above-ground vegetation dies back after flowering, while the underground bulb stores the reserves needed for the next cycle. The foliage is deciduous. Its leaves emerge in spring, then yellow and disappear as the bulb enters summer dormancy. 'Edna Earl' is a horticultural cultivar raised in the Netherlands by G.A. Uit den Boogaard; its first flowering predates 1950. This variety falls under Division 3 daffodils, the small-cupped group: each stem bears a single flower, and the central crown does not exceed one-third the length of the tepals. The bulb produces an upright, vigorous clump, reaching 40 to 50 cm in height when in flower. It multiplies gradually over time, producing bulblets. The mid-green to slightly glaucous leaves are narrow, strap-shaped, and upright. Its flower stem bears a large bloom composed of six white tepals, or "petals," which are broad and overlapping. At the centre, the small cup, yellow-orange to orange, is edged with an orange-red to red, distinctly frilled rim. This flower emits a clearly perceptible fragrance. Flowering occurs in April in an average climate, or in early May in cooler regions. Very hardy, the plant withstands temperatures close to −23 °C provided the soil is well-drained. It tolerates a somewhat heavy garden soil, as long as water does not stagnate, and flowers more abundantly in fertile soil that retains moisture during its spring growth cycle. Despite its poet's daffodil-like coloured eye, 'Edna Earl' is indeed a small-cupped daffodil: this classification is based on the length of its crown, not on this resemblance.

Plant the bulbs in small groups in a sunny border, a well-drained edging, or a lawn that will not be mown until after the leaves have yellowed. You can pair it with other fragrant daffodils, with Tulipa clusiana 'Lady Jane', white with a cherry-pink reverse, flowering at the same time, and with Phlox subulata 'Emerald Cushion Blue' for its carpet of soft blue flowers from April to June. A little later, the white flowers with red eyes of Dianthus deltoides 'Arctic Fire' ; its low foliage fills the ground after the bulbs have died back.

Photo courtesy of Laurent Lieser, tulipe-botanique.com