Blowing their own delicate trumpets
The daffodils at Hever Castle in Kent are chosen to appear as if they are wildings that might have grown here when Anne Boleyn walked these gardens as a child, with new varieties added each year, reveals Val Bourne
The key is to find those that look as if they could have brushed against Boleyn’s gown
DAFFODILS have long been a feature at Hever Castle in Kent. When William Waldorf ‘Willy’ Astor, the richest American of his day, acquired Hever in 1903, his journal insisted they ‘should be planted right across the estate’.
The first Viscount Astor, a self-confessed romantic who had taken British citizenship in 1899, was captivated by the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. He caused massive oak trees from Ashdown Forest, some 12 miles south, to be hauled to the castle across the North Downs on horse-drawn carts, for Ashdown was reputedly where Henry VIII first saw Anne Boleyn when out hunting.
The Ashdown oaks still thrive beside the lake, which was excavated and constructed by 800 men who worked around the clock (except on Sundays) to complete the work in two years. Up to 100 gardeners were employed to create the ambitious design, between 1904 and 1908, and the four-acre Italian Garden oozes wealth and style. Yet the castle itself, which dates from 1270, is framed by a tranquil moat that encloses an ancient orchard. In spring, this is full of heritage apple trees about to blossom and daffodils galore. Every year, Hever’s head hardener Neil Miller adds new varieties. He is advised by daffodil expert Johnny Walkers, who spends a few days here every March leading tours and talking to the public. Mr Walkers was awarded 25 consecutive gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show before his retirement in 2018 and, on one occasion, he was forced to set up his exhibit when on crutches following a toboggan accident. That’s true devotion.
The key to selecting new varieties to plant is to find those that look as if they could have brushed against Boleyn’s gown, for, in her day, daffodils, or Lent lilies, were wildings—not highly bred garden flowers. John Gerard (1564–1637) records that our native Narcissus pseudonarcissus grew ‘almost everywhere through England’. Early collectors roamed the meadows, hills and woodland edges looking for unusual forms of this early-flowering, demure daffodil with paleyellow, informally arranged petals that are set around a darker-yellow corona (the trumpet). Wild populations can still be seen in the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
On rare occasions, doubles were found— probably sports rather than seedlings—and these have been avidly collected since the 1500s. N. ‘Telamonius Plenus’, a showy, brightyellow double dating from before 1620, is the oldest daffodil here. It was raised by Vincent Sion, a Flemish Huguenot who lived on Bankside in London and was described as ‘an industrious and worthy lover of fair flowers’ in Dutch Bulbs and Gardens, published in 1909. This intricate double was chronicled in Parkinson’s Paradisi in Sole, Paradisus Terrestris of 1629 and mentioned by E. A. Bowles in A Handbook of Narcissus in 1934.
N. ‘Telamonius Plenus’ masquerades under several names. When the avid plantsman Sion passed a bulb to George Wilmer of Stratford Bowe, he broke every rule in horticulture by renaming it ‘Wilmer’s Double
Golden Daffodil’. The British horticulturalist Ellen Willmott (1858–1934) of Warley Place in Essex, who encouraged small children to sit in a wheelbarrow and throw her bulbs on to the ground as they were pushed along, named it ‘Willmott’s Double Daffodil’. Perhaps the most telling common name—guernsey Cabbage Daffodil—sums up its in-your-face quality. Guernsey growers sold it as a cut flower as doubles do last longer, in vase or garden. It stands out well in the orchard, flowering early to mid season and, to add to the confusion, is generally sold as ‘Van Sion’.
There’s another March-flowering double, ‘Rip van Winkle’, in the orchard. This double form of N. minor was raised in Ireland before 1884 or 1885, most probably from a single sport. Short stems, topped with wispy, slightly ragged green and yellow flowers, curtsey low, thereby missing the worst of spring squalls. This free-flowering, scented and vigorous double is widely available.
The much more upright and substantial N. ‘Empress’ and ‘Emperor’ are also found in Hever’s orchard. These 19th-century varieties were raised by William Backhouse (1807–69), a member of a Quaker banking family who lived in Wolsingham, Co Durham. Backhouse took pollen from selected wild daffodils and fertilised Narcissus bicolor, a closely related and confusing species from the eastern and central Pyrenees. The two resulting hybrids were the first triploid daffodils. These are much easier to crosspollinate and have extra vigour, too.
‘Empress’ has a flared, rich-yellow trumpet surrounded by neatly formed, pale-yellow petals. The more substantial ‘Emperor’ is taller with a mid-yellow trumpet surrounded by neatly formed yellow petals. The latter’s pollen was used to create ‘King Alfred’, an iconic 1899 yellow trumpet variety raised by John Kendall of Newton Poppleford in Devon. This is now hard to find.
Willmott got children to sit in a wheelbarrow and throw her bulbs to the ground as they were pushed along
‘W. P. Milner’, a mixture of brimstone and cream, was also raised by Backhouse. It’s very close to a native wilding in form, but the sulphur-yellow flowers mature to cream. Mr Backhouse named it after a distinguished fellow Quaker and keen gardener called William Pashley Milner of Sheffield. This readily available daffodil is widely planted for its informal charm. The dainty ‘Snipe’ is a 1940s Welsh-bred descendant with sweptback petals, courtesy of N. cyclamineus.
Many of the foreign narcissi introduced into cultivation were collected in the Picos and the Pyrenees. It’s thought that N. ‘Princeps’, registered before 1830, may be an Italian form of N. pseudonarcissus once called N. gayi. It has the same twist to the forward-facing, pale-lemon petals, although the slender mid-yellow trumpet is longer.
This opens earlier-producing, larger flowers than our native form and was once widely cultivated for the cut-flower trade. Remnant populations can still be seen growing among brambles on Cornish cliffs.
Most yellow daffodils flower in March and white-flowered forms generally follow on. Mr Walkers has, therefore, been adding laterflowering daffodils in a wider range of colours to ensure the wonderful display at Hever Castle will continue to shine until May. Hever Castle, Kent. Johnny Walkers’s Tours will run in March, restrictions permitting (01732 865224; www.hevercastle.co.uk)