Wild Daffs found in North Devon

Wild Daffs abundant on Tarka trail

I have been experiencing some technical problems and a few network issues, with both my computer and my mobile phone, so apologies for the lateness of my Daff-blogs this year.  The photos on this blog-post were taken 15th March.  They were very early this year.  

Had all my gadgetry been fully operational; this post would have been written at least a month ago.

North Devon is very much a 'man-scape'.  The green desert, I used to call it, before I moved here.  Endless boggy, slightly undulating, high up cultivated squares, as far as you can see, where most of the woods are conifer plantations and little natural environment exists.

North Devon is huge, remote and sparsely populated.  Unlike down south it is largely unvisited.  The south is crammed with twee towns and seaside resorts, where as the North just seems an endless green footpathless desert of undulating Sheep and Cow fields, with the odd tiny village occasionally spotted.

There are two main rivers in North Devon; The Taw and the Torrige.  I haven't really explored the Taw valley yet.  But this day, on the 15th March, I explored the Torridge.

Both valleys are beset by conifer plantations all the way up to the edges of the moors, from which they arise.  I really felt sceptical about my prospects for being able to find any sizable quantities of Wild Daffs after remembering the ancient Oak forests around the south side of Dartmoor, where I used to find them.

Watergate

There is a cycle path going up the valley of the river Torrige, called the Tarka Trail, after the  book/film 'Tarka the Otter'.  It used to be a railway line, but like so many it was cut, by Dr Beeching in 1962.

There are a number of little parking places, all along this cycle path, but I chose to park at a place called Watergate, but not the same one as in the Nixon scandal.

The muddy bottomed clay valley was criss crossed by braided rivulets of cloudy clayey water.  This was sided by fairly swampy land.  Up a bit was the level twisting cycle path, all set in a deep valley.

As shown on my map; the area was mostly occupied by conifer plantations, under which very little can grow.  But most felled ares seemed to be being replaced by allowing native trees to find their own way there.  it also looked like the odd patches of native woodland had been left, when the land had been changed to quick growing coniferous trees; presumably after the one of the world wars, when there was a timber shortage and in the following decades we lost 50% of our native deciduous woodland.

Wild Daffs

All along the river banks and the not entirely swampy parts of this valley bottom, also along the verges on both sides of the cycle path, were an abundance of Wild Daffs and Wood Anemones.  The most I have seen so far in North Devon.  

The colonies were not all in a few solid huge established areas, like the ones in the Dart and Teign valleys on Dartmoor, with their huge ancient and unbroken deciduous forests.  But instead strung along in varying sized clumps all the way along this little valley and where the tree type allowed.

The Wild Daffs here are defiantly the right species and not some cultivated variety gone wild, but they are slightly different to the ones in south Devon, since they would presumably have been thriving and evolving in genetic isolation from those other clumps I am familiar with.

An Early Spring

The first signs of Spring

I don't know if you can make it out from the picture on the left, or not; but the Wild Daffs have broken through the ground.

They normally flower in March, but a whole month later on Dartmoor, in April.

Looks like Spring will arrive early this Year.


In the picture to the right; Cultivated Daffs; almost to the point of flowering, at two hundred metres above sea level and on the third of January in the normally freezing ( at this time of year) UK.

Wild Daffs above 500m




Seeing Daffs Brings Happiness
 This is just one of many sites, where I have planted Wild Daffodils, earlier this year, but this one is special in quite a few ways:

• At between 460 and 500 metres above sea level; they're probably the highest Wild Daffodils in the country.
• There are huge amounts planted here, from at least 4 different locations.
• But most importantly they are in memory of a mate, who died last year, called Pip.  She died at quite a young age and quite unexpectedly, so this site, the year's most extensive; is dedicated to her.

Pip Daffs Lane, as you can see is very high up and is surrounded by high altitude farm land and moors and on one side there is a plantation of mixed trees; Beech, Spruce and a few others, certainly nothing to do with me, although I have managed to squeeze in the odd Hazel, from time to time.

This is not the ideal site for Daffs, but I put in a few in here, back in year 2 and year 4 (now is just coming up to year 11), they have spread quite nicely, not seeded yet and not spreading as quickly as they have in other areas, but spreading never the less, and flowering; every year.  It will propably take a few years before this lot really starts to look good.

The Daffs here are planted in clumps, all the way down and on both sides of the road.  I mean, I was going to plant some Daffs here anyway, but I thought I would make a real spectacle of the site; and up here they are sometimes still flowering at the end of May, a full month after lowland ones have finished.

When people die; they say it either brings people together or tears people apart.  Pip's demise would defiantly be an example of one that brought people together.  People will hopefully come for miles to see this spectacle of nature and it will hopefully make people happy and bring people together, as well.



Teign George

Extensive wild Colonies

Wild Daffs, growing in the biggest area, I know of in the Teign valley and gorge in Devon.

If you want to see a real spectacle in March;

Follow the signs to Moretonhampstead from Exeter along the B3212. If you go to Moretonhampstead you have gone much, much too far and turn around. Just after the National park sign, at a little thatched place called Dunsford is this the beginning of the Teign Gorge. The Wild Daffodil mother-ship.

Go past Dunsford and over the little poky steps bridge, and there is a car park on your right, immediately after a cafe. Park there or along the road somewhere, if the car park's full, and head down into the valley.

Wild Daffs cover the whole valley floor for miles up and down stream from here. they are in hedges, woodland, everywhere.

There are brilliant examples here, of Daffs growing in many different habitats, including along river banks and in farmer's fields. Lots of them. Trust me. You'll be amazed. I am every year. It is by far one of my favorite places on the planet, the very instant they are gone; the leaves come out on the trees, and suddenly; it's all Bluebells.

I want to make more places like this!

Devon Daffodils in the wild

Here in this ancient woodland, not too far from Buckfast Abbey; Wild Daffodils grow in proffusion. In this woodland they occour in vast patches, but most of the woods has none, although I make a point of adding some to currently unpopulated parts of this and other woods, as I detour cross-country, back to the carpark, with my bouty.

I really only need to collect them from where they are slighty trampled on foot paths, or where many clumps are competeing for light and space. Clumps are broken up and mixed up as much as possible, to decrease the likleyhood of clones or closly related plants being planted right next to each other.

Past Successes

Wild Daffodils Narcissus pseudonarcisus will grow in a wide variety of habitats. If it wasn't for their inability to disperse their seeds properly, they would probably be as common as Daisies.

The sites here illustrated were planted on year 6/7 (spring 07/08), some of them under newly planted woodland, the others along and under a hedge and bank.

They are quite happy in semi saturated ground also along dry wall tops, in fields or deciduous woodland. They will not grow if there is no leaf mold from any near by trees or shrubs, they most defiantly will not survive underneath conifers, nor will they thrive under plantations of just Beech, but will be fine in a mixed woods containing Beech.

They seem to like Hawthorn and Oak most of all. These Daffs are on their 3rd year of growth after planting (photographed last spring), now they are beginning to form clumps and look established, although it is still too early to notice if they have set any seeds yet, as they apparently take about 7 years to flower from seed. Some commercial varieties can take up to 18 years, I am told.

The first year I did this, I planted small amounts in different locations and then monitored their progress over the following years. Finding out that they didn't like Beech trees was a bit of a painful lesson, but a necessary one.

Up here, above 400 metres everything is at least a month behind and instead of flowering in March, my Daffs flower in April. Some of the cultivated varieties go on into May & there was one exceptionally cold year where I still had a few flowering in my front garden in the Beginning of June.

Incidentally; these Daffs go on for the entire length of the road, between my village and a near by hamlet, about three quaters of a mile, I think. Although Devon sign-posts are seldom accurate.

Collection and Processing of Wild Daffs

I don't really want you to see how manky my spare room was last spring, anyway I suppose it is necessary.

As you can see; I have divided the plants into two piles, those with flowers/seed heads and those without. Daffs seem to grow better and are more likely to flower on the first year after planting, if they are dried out. But if they have a flower or developing seed head, then I think that they should have the chance to set those seeds, so I plant these ones immediately and spread the others out on newspaper to dry out.

I start to collect Wild Daffodils just as the flowers begin to fade and 'Daffodil collecting season' goes on until they have all disappeared completely, back into the ground & I can no longer see them.


Here Sally (cat) guards them fiercely.

All my methods are derived from either common horticultural practice and/or experimentation.

It is possible that some time in the past some creature might have existed, which had formed a symbiotic relationship with our Wild Daffs and aided them in their seed dispersal. As it is they produce many seeds, which germinate very easily, but like little heavy marbles, these little black bead-like balls drop to the ground, rarely more than a metre away from the mother plant. The result of this of course being that you end up with vast colonies of them in one or two parts of a woods and none anywhere Else.
Of course, this is where I come in.