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.

Drying out Wild Daffodils

After spreading out the Daffs on newspaper, all I have to do is turn them over every couple of days, or so. This mixes them up and stops them from going mouldy or developing any fungal infections. A cool dry place is good, such as my spare room. Unfortunately, as you can see; my cats think I have put them their for their benefit, still, I suppose they don't do any harm and it dose give them somewhere nice and comfy to sit.

When all the goodness from the leaves has gone back into the bulb, the top parts of the plants will easily pull off. Then the bulbs can be planted along roads, hedges, woodland and river banks.

It takes about seven years for Wild Daffodils to flower from seed & usually the bulbs don't start propagating themselves vegetatively until they are mature. A result of these facts is that often they don't flower for the first year after planting and they seem to increase rapidly on a site, from year to year, as more and more bulbs mature.