White Daffodil Project - My White Daffodil Collection in Bloom
Hello friends,
With this year's daffodil flowering all but over, I wanted to share with you the white daffodil varieties growing in my garden as part of the White Daffodil Project I began in June, and see how they've performed in their first season.
The first white daffodil to flower in my garden was 'Earlicheer', which very much lived up to its name. It produces clusters of pretty double flowers, with several blooms on each stem. The plants grew to around 30 cm tall, and the flowers were highly scented, making this a lovely addition to my garden.
While 'Earlicheer' is very pretty in the garden, unfortunately, its short stems make it unsuitable for use as a cut flower.
The next variety to flower was 'Thalia', an orchid narcissus with petite, pure white blooms and elegantly reflexed petals. It's such a pretty, dainty variety, with flowers reaching only around 25 cm tall. Although 'Thalia' is described as highly fragrant, I have to say that my flowers didn't have much scent at all.
Like 'Earlicheer', 'Thalia' is also too short to be a suitable cut flower daffodil. However, I'm very happy to have her growing in my garden because she's such a pretty and elegant variety.
Next up is 'Ice Follies', a large-cupped daffodil with wide blooms, creamy white petals, and a frilly lemon-yellow cup. This variety produces strong stems reaching up to 60 cm tall. It's also highly scented, with a lovely sweet fragrance that fills the room.
'Ice Follies' is a great candidate for growing as a cut flower. Even though the flowers aren't pure white, its strong stems and wonderful fragrance more than make up for that.
Cheerfulness is a double daffodil that grows to around 50 cm tall. Each stem produces pretty double flowers, making it a lovely, full-looking variety. The flowers have a medium-strength fragrance with a sweet, musky scent.
With its tall stems and lovely fragrance, 'Cheerfulness' is a well-known cut flower variety, and I'm very happy to have it growing in my garden.
Next is 'Pure White', a variety that certainly lives up to its name. It was the whitest of all the white daffodils I grew this year, with stems reaching up to 50 cm tall. The flowers were only very lightly scented, but their pure white colour makes this variety stand out in my garden.
With its tall stems and pure white flowers, 'Pure White' is an ideal choice for growing as a cut flower, and also in my garden.
Next is 'Watch Up', an upward-facing trumpet daffodil with a pastel yellow, ribbed trumpet that gradually fades to white. Its stems reach around 40–50 cm tall, and the flowers have a lovely sweet fragrance.
'Watch Up' is another definite keeper as a cut flower variety, thanks to its tall stems and upward-facing blooms. She's also quite a happy looking daffodil, so I'm pleased to grow her in my garden.
Next is 'Annalise', which has creamy petals surrounding a soft lemon-coloured frilly trumpet. Reaching around 40 cm tall, this variety has a delicate, subtle fragrance.
Although 'Annalise' isn't a pure white daffodil because of its creamy colouring, its beautifully frilled trumpet makes it a standout in my garden. At around 40 cm tall, it would make a lovely addition to spring cut flower bunches.
Next is 'Bridal Crown', a double daffodil that grows to around 50 cm tall. Each stem carries petite blooms in a soft, creamy colour palette. It's also very fragrant, with a sweet scent which was noticeable in my spring garden.
'Bridal Crown' would make a lovely cut flower, with its tall stems, clusters of petite double blooms, and sweet fragrance. Its soft, creamy colouring would look great in spring bouquets.
And finally the last white daffodil in my new white daffodil collection is ‘Mint Julep’. It was described as being a 30 - 50 cm tall refreshing and elegant small‑cupped variety with soft colouring according to the Bulbs Direct website. It has a shallow cup which opens with green tones, and matures into gentle shades of yellow.
'Mint Julep' was one of the last white daffodils to flower in my collection, and it turned out to be my least favourite of the varieties I grew this year. The stems were on the short side, reaching only around 30 cm tall, and I found the trumpet quite garish rather than elegant. Personally, I wouldn't consider this a great cut flower variety, as I think its bold colouring would make it difficult to incorporate into a bouquet.
Now that all my white daffodils have flowered, I've settled on three favourites that I would consider growing in the future as cut flowers: 'Pure White', 'Watch Up', and 'Annalise'. Their taller stems and elegant blooms make them ideal candidates for spring bouquets, and I love the different details each variety brings, from the pure white petals of 'Pure White' to the soft yellow trumpet of 'Watch Up', and the frilly centre of 'Annalise'.
For the garden, however, my favourite has to be 'Thalia'. She's too short to be useful as a cut flower, but her petite, pure white blooms and graceful appearance make her a delight to grow. Sometimes a daffodil doesn't need to make it into a vase to earn a place in my garden.
I'm really pleased with how my white daffodil collection has performed in its first season, and it's been fun discovering the differences between each variety. I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow and flower again next spring, and I'll be interested to see whether my favourites remain the same. I'm also keen to continue expanding my collection with more white daffodil varieties, especially those that would make beautiful cut flowers. There's always room for a few more daffodils in my garden...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
New Dahlia Varieties For 2026
Hello friends,
Today I wanted to share with you the dahlia varieties I purchased this past autumn and winter. As you know, I'm completely obsessed with dahlias, and I've even started breeding my own dahlia varieties. This year I decided to only buy anemone and collarette varieties, as they're my favourite types to grow.
But as always, life happened, and I bought a few other varieties as well. They include some wish list varieties, a few replacements for dahlias that rotted last year, and even some varieties I've purchased for an experiment I want to try this summer.
So, here is the full list of dahlias I've added to my collection this year.
First up we have the anemone dahlia varieties:
- Antonia Prebble (NZ)
- Blue Bayou
- Inca
- Jive
- Josie
- Lifestyle
- Octopus Sparkle
- Platinum Blonde (replacement)
- Poodle Skirt
- Que Sera
- Richard's Fortune
- Rural Goldfinch (NZ)
- Soulman
- The Phantom (replacement)
- Toto
There are quite a few red and purple anemone varieties included, as I don't have many of these in my garden right now.
Next, we have the collarette dahlia varieties I've bought this year:
- April Heather
- Bumble Rumble (replacement for one with gall)
- Gore Blimey
- Liquid Desire
- Pooh
- Rural Jenny (NZ)
- Rural Lady (NZ)
- Sarah Raven
- Teesbrook Audrey
Most of these varieties are red collarettes that I don't currently have in my garden. The dahlia I'm most excited about growing this year is April Heather. Last year her tubers were selling for over $350 a tuber, and this year I did a targeted strike at an online store pre-order, and bought a tuber for $50. She hasn't arrived yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting to see her flower in my garden this summer.
I also bought three miniature ball dahlia varieties for my garden, which I'll be using for an experiment in my garden for this summer.
- Koko Puff
- Rocco
- Small World
- Daisy Duke
- Night Silence
- Sharnis Suprise
Night Silence has been on my wish list for years, but I always seemed to miss out whenever Mount Mera held a sale. Daisy Duke came into my collection as a replacement for an anemone dahlia that one of my suppliers couldn't provide this spring. Fortunately, she's in a colour range I love, so I was happy to accept the substitution.
Sharni's Surprise was a last-minute purchase from our local garden centre. Released by Fiesta Bulbs this spring, she's an unusual ombré dahlia, and I haven't been able to find any information about this variety online. The current theory among New Zealand dahlia growers is that she may be a sport or mutation of another variety that Fiesta Bulbs grows each year, although this hasn't been confirmed yet.
And finally, I bought one dinner-plate dahlia, 'Café au Lait'. Every year I've tried growing her, she has rotted in my garden, but I'm giving her one last chance. I love her beautiful creamy shades and would really like to add her to the other 'Café au Lait' varieties growing in my garden. Fingers crossed I have better luck this time.
I'm really looking forward to growing all these new dahlias this season, and especially the anemone and collarette varieties that I've added to my collection. I'm also excited to see how the new additions perform in the garden and whether any of them turn out to be promising candidates for my dahlia breeding program.
Now I just need to get them all planted and wait for summer to see them in flower...
Have a wonderful day,
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
Papahoa Fibreworks Linen Grow Along - Preparing The Ground and Seed Sowing
Hello friends,
With spring now here, it was finally time to sow my linen fibre seeds as part of the Papahoa Fibreworks linen grow along. But first, I had to choose a 1 m² patch of the vegetable garden to grow them in, and prepare the soil for seed sowing.
Space is at a premium in my garden this growing season for many different reasons, so I squeezed the plot in close to the back of our house, next to the bed where I'm growing my sugar beet plants, and alongside the beds where I'm planting our potatoes.
With the garden bed chosen, the next step was to prepare the bed for seed sowing. I took the advice from the linen grow along, and created a false seed bed, encouraging the weeds to germinate so I could remove them before the linen seeds are planted.
I removed weeds from the area and raked it flat, and then watered it well to encourage the weeds to grow. Within a week, the weed seeds on the surface germinated, and I hoed the patch of ground to kill the weeds which had grown. I repeated this process three more times over the following weeks, since apparently this patch of garden had many weed seeds in the top few centimetres of soil.
With the weed seeds all taken care of, it was finally time to sow the linen. Hand-scattering the seed over the 1 m² patch of soil didn't take very long at all, using the four-pass method recommended by the grow along. The aim is to distribute the seed evenly and densely in a cross-hatch pattern, encouraging the linen seedlings to grow upwards and produce long, straight stems rather than branching. These long stems are what contain the linen fibre that will eventually be harvested. The packet from Papahoa Fibreworks contained 10.3 grams of seed, which was enough to sow the entire 1 m² patch.
I then gently raked the soil over the linen seeds and used the back of the rake to lightly tamp them into place. After giving the bed a good watering to get germination started, I covered the seeds with netting to stop our local birds from eating them.
With the linen seeds finally sown, all that's left to do now is wait for them to germinate and start growing. I'm looking forward to following the linen through the growing season and seeing how it performs in my garden, while learning more about growing and processing linen fibre along the way.
Hopefully, with a little help from some spring sunshine and rain, I'll have a healthy patch of linen ready for harvesting this summer. For now, the linen grow along has officially begun.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
From A Lilac Tree to More Dahlias in the Backyard
Hello friends,
Over the winter months I've been busy in the back left-hand side of our garden, in the area where our lilac tree used to stand. After the tree died after the big spring storm last year, and once we'd taken it down, it gave me an opportunity to rethink and rearrange that side of the garden.
The first thing I did was set up some space along the fence line for growing sweet peas, which is already underway. The sweet peas are now growing happily up the wire netting.
As for the rest of the space, there was now a large area that could fit many more dahlias than I currently had. I decided to lay it out in rows so I could fit in as many as possible. I've become obsessed with anemone and collarette dahlias recently, so I wanted to add more of these to my collection, and also include them in my fledgling breeding program.
The first step was to dig out the lilac tree stump, and it turned out to be much easier than we'd expected. Hubby got the job done in less than half an hour, as the stump was completely rotten. I suspect this may have been the main reason why the lilac tree may have died in the first place...
The next step was to transplant my two damask rose bushes to the back fence line of our backyard. Last year, I had grown a dahlia between my dogwood and feijoa bushes, but it had struggled to survive in that position. Although the area gets sun for most of the day, the soil isn't in the best condition. My two damask roses (Duc De Cambridge and Isapahan), on the other hand, are very hardy, and don't mind what soil type they are in, so I thought they would be much better suited to the space, while also freeing up more room in my new dahlia area.
It didn't take very long to prune the damask roses back to a size more easier to transport, before carefully digging them up, while keeping as much of their root systems intact as possible. Then came the tricky part, walking them across the backyard without getting stabbed by their many sharp thorns. Once they had safely reached their new home, the roses were planted and watered in well. Now, in spring, they are very happily growing in their new position.
By now it was the middle of winter, and in between the frosts, rain, and a snow storm, it was time to tackle the dahlias that remained in the ground in this area. One by one, they were carefully dug up and transplanted into an empty vegetable garden bed nearby to overwinter while I prepared their new permanent home.
The task after this was a big one. Weeding the entire side of the garden took many weeks as I worked my way along the bed, laying out plant tags, and placing schist rocks to create paths between the rows where the dahlias would go. My plan was to plant the anemone and collarette dahlias two abreast, with the shortest varieties at the front and the tallest ones at the back.
I'd really let this side of the garden go in late summer and autumn, and I was paying for it now, dealing with a large number of weeds. The weeding continued into spring, and I even had to go back over some of the areas I'd already cleared as new weeds began popping up.
But finally, after many weeks of planning and weeding the space, my new dahlia bed is now ready. There's now a large, clear area waiting for all my anemone and collarette variety dahlias, along with a bunch of new ones. It has been a much bigger job than I expected, but I'm really pleased with how the space has come together.
And my new dahlias have already arrived, and are in storage in our garage. I'm impatiently waiting to plant them, along with all my other anemone and collarette dahlia varieties. After all those months of planning and weeding, I'm looking forward to seeing this space finally filled with dahlias this summer.
Have a wonderful day,
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
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