Into brown paper bags went the bulbs I would need for a particular project. Snowdrops, of course; I picked the familiar Galanthus nivalis for its early flowers, love of dappled shade and willingness to spread.
Then narcissi; the delicate Lent Lily depicted in Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies of the Spring, set to bloom around Ash Wednesday, naturalise nicely. This Lenten flower, also known as the “Wild Lily”, is thought to be the daffodil that inspired Wordsworth, not those great gold trumpets that will be blaring from every municipal planting scheme in another month or so.
Lastly, to take over when the Lent Lily starts to fade in late March, another old variety, narcissus WP Milner: its petals of pale straw fading to milky-white.
