Saturday, February 27, 2010

Jonquils or Daffodills?

Jonquil's or Daffodil's, this is the question....

I began to ponder this dilemma after seeing the differentiation between these two horticultural beauties over at Ol' Western Gal's site called Banner Haus News. While she did not provide photos, she was referencing their eminent blooming. This got me a-wondering.

I always thought these names were interchangeable but I was WRONG. Being the botanist I claim I am, I have to admit that I do not always pay the closest attention to horticultural varietals. I really specialize in "wild" plants. However, with dozens of "daffodils" blooming in our yard I perked up and thought I'd better straighten out my vocabulary and get the right definition for these flowers.

I actually looked this up. Cause, I know ya'll really wanted to know this stuff... (OK I really wanted to know and decided to post it as a special treat. Hee hee...)

Below we have Jonquils. They are separated from daffodils by presence of multiple flowers per inflorescence. See the abundance of mini stems emerging from one central stem...


These flowers below are Daffodils. They are characterized by one flower per stem...


Big showy varieties...


My favorite mini-daffs.


New Daffs with multiple petals. These were quite a surprise. A good surprise!


Now I just had to throw in the Camellias that are blooming in Suzi's yard. They are equally stunning and brief in their appearance. One must enjoy while they are present!!


That's enough botany for the moment. I could go on but there is only so much I will torture folks with...

Bye for now.

22 comments:

Julie Harward said...

Hum...I had no idea...such a difference! I will have to pay more attention to this and look to see if I can spot it! thanks :D

joco said...

Hello Julia,

Call them all 'narcissi' and you're covered :-)

Please throw in more Camellias, and I'll be back.

Melodie said...

What ever they are called ,I love them! I kind of go overboard in the fall when they sell the bulbs....I think I may have a gardening addiction!

Rural Rambler said...

So Julia, now I know we have a yard full of daffie faces! Well not yet, they are just peeping up now not sure about our crazy weather. But they are checkin' it out. We do have some jonquills but daffies rule. Thanks for the pics and info :)

Holly, the Old Western Gal said...

Julia, then what are narcissus??? I can see I have called jonquils wrong. I think mine are daffidowndillies.

Your California camellias bloom later than the ones near New Orleans. They were right around Christmas. What a gorgeous flower, like a florist flower, growing right outdoors on a shrub!

Julia said...

Holly-Narcissus is the genus for all of the bloomin' beauties. They are all Narcissus (fill in the blank species). This includes paper whites too. So you can call any of them Narcissus without worry cauze you'll never be wrong! :)

brokenteepee said...

Well I never knew...
thanks for the lesson.
I love flowers of any kind.
munch, munch, munch

Karen said...

I knew the difference only because I couldn't stand letting my mother in-law think she was right! Ha! Check out my new blog and giveaway when you get a minute.

Grand Pooba said...

Wow, I didn't know there was a difference between the two either! Oh who am I kidding, I've never heard of Jonquils before in my life!

But now I have. Thank you, something else to prove that I'm smarter then Albert.

I LOVE those mini daffs!

The Mind of a Mom said...

I have not got the first clue about what is a flower and what is a weed! And trying to name them is not even something I would attempt to do!! :o)

IanH said...

That info is definitely not torture. Very informastive and appreciated! Narcissus do OK where we live, but tulips (any kind) are endangered. They are referred to as "Deer Candy". Elaine planted about 200 when we first moved to Alberta and only had 1 flower. The rest were nibbled off at ground level. This was in town. I believe that the narcissus survived by being poisonous, as the odd one would be pulled up and left.

Anonymous said...

we live in the jonquil capital of the U.S i have been told and i see billions of these every year . we plan to attend the jonquil festival this year. thanks for the tutorial :)

Lesley Speller said...

I guess we don't have any jonquils around here. At least none that I've seen. Actually I think I have the only soil in the universe that kills daffodils... Daffodils are practically weeds everywhere else, but my yard murders them.

Vixen of Vixensden.com said...

I LOVE it when you teach me stuff!!! And your pictures are good too. Enough already, I don't want you to get a big head, lol.

theUngourmet said...

This is fun to know! I think I have both growing. I love those new ones. So pretty! I love Camellias too! This stuff doesn't bore me at all. In fact, just the other day I looked online for schools that offered Botany!! :)

Julie said...

Enjoyed my visit to your blog!

Julie
www.equusgirl.blogspot.com
www.ridingaside.blogspot.com

Sara said...

I like that you get excited about this stuff. Beautiful pictures! And thank you for educating me on these flowers, they have always been "those pretty yellow ones in the neighbors yard".

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

i knew there was a difference but didn't find out why....thanks for sharing! love your pics!

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

i knew there was a difference but didn't find out why....thanks for sharing! love your pics!

Captain Dumbass said...

My wife actually straightened me out on that difference the other day.

Doris Sturm said...

I love all flowers, especially the spring flowers, like daffodils and tulips. Camelias are in full bloom here...they always bloom in the cold winter. They are pretty, but oh, so messy ;-)

I had some paperwhites blooming about 6 or 8 weeks ago - when it was super cold. I just love them - they have such an intoxicating scent and also belong to the Narcissus species, just like daffodils and jonquils.

Have a wonderful week, Julia!
Doris :-)

Sharkbytes said...

Julia- I'm so overdue on visiting you! Hey, thanks for lookin' this up for me. Is that Jetfire? My fav of the minis too.

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