What Are The Best Companion Plants To Plant With Daffodils?
Spring-blooming bulbs are easy to plant in the fall, and they provide a glorious splash of bright color early in the springtime.
Of all the spring-blooming bulbs available, daffodils are probably the most popular. You could plant an array of white, yellow, orange, and even pink shades in your early springtime garden.
For even more variety and color pop, try a mix of spring-blooming bulbs, such as:
- Grape hyacinth
- Standard hyacinth
- Crocus
- Tulips
Additionally, blooming perennial plants, such as columbine, poppies, and bleeding hearts make excellent daffodil companions.
This article provides ten excellent choices to help you learn about companion planting with daffodils.
Related: Check this guide on Daffodil Growing and Care
1. Grecian windflowers are easy to grow and provide lots of pretty colors in your garden.
These spring bulbs multiply quickly on their own to form a 6″ – 8″ inch high ground cover of daisy-like flowers in shades of white and blue.
Low-growing Grecian windflowers interspersed with tall, golden daffodils make a winning combination.
2. Grand Maitre giant crocus is a purple springtime classic. This early bloomer pops up to about 6″ inches before the snow has fully melted. It makes a beautiful companion to early-blooming daffodils.
3. Aiolos hyacinths’ clumps of white blooms are fragrant and make a beautiful border plant around a bed of taller daffodils. These tall (8″ – 12″ inch) beauties also make a cut flower garden an excellent addition.
4. Grape hyacinth blends beautifully with bright yellow daffodils in naturalized planting. Classic yellow daffodils and rugged, low growing (4″ – 8″ inches high) grape hyacinth grow and spread in a carefree manner in a sunny, open setting.
5. Encouraging native perennial flowering plants is good in a truly naturalized setting.
For example, if you live in an area where wild violets can grow and thrive, an understory of pretty purple violets pops in a field of golden daffodils.
6. In a flowerbed, violets’ domesticated cousins, pansies, and Johnny-jump-ups can fulfill this purpose. Or try other hardy annuals such as marigolds, petunias, and bright, cheery, low-growing, blooming plants.
Many people like to spread mixed annual flower seeds over their daffodil and spring bulb beds. They work to fill in the spaces between bulbs and cover the daffodil foliage when it dies back.
7. Red impression tulips (aka: Darwin hybrid tulips) are an excellent choice as a companion for naturalized daffodils.
These giants can stand nearly 3′ feet high with enormous (6″ wide) deep red blooms.
Their bold, red color provides a stunning contrast to sunny yellow daffodils and deep purple hyacinth.
8. Violet beauty single late tulips grow to be over a foot high. Their intriguing purplish/blue color is especially gorgeous when planted as a backdrop to a sweep of striking pink daffodils.
9. Another impressive choice in tulips is the exotic emperor tulip (aka: White Valley). It sets off the delicate color of lighter yellow daffodils.
This double tulip presents fluffy, white, peony-like blooms. These early bloomers grow to 10″ – 18″ inches.
Most tulips do very well planted alongside or among daffodils.
Another standout includes spring green viridiflora tulips. It is a fantastic choice when planted with small, white narcissus or jonquils. Or try purple prince or stunning apricot single early tulips.
The key to finding the right tulip to keep your daffodils company lies in researching height and spread.
Choose varieties of daffodils and tulips whose color, height, and growth habits will complement rather than compete.
10. A mix of irises and daffodils of varying colors can’t be beaten for a carefree springtime bulb garden.
Combining these two classics provides a dazzling display of pollinator-friendly cut flower possibilities. And they take minimal effort on your part.
Both irises and daffodils return year after year and only need:
- mulching in the fall,
- light fertilizing in the spring, and
- division every five years
Daffodils Get Along With Everyone
Daffodils are often used as companion plants because they are so easygoing. It’s simple to plant a few daffodil bulbs here and there to add color and variety to the garden.
They arise early in the springtime. But they also tend to die back and start looking shabby mid-growing season.
For this reason, choose some companion plants that will outstay them and cover up their yellowing foliage, which you must leave in place for the plant’s health.
You can include some taller, late-blooming plants as companions to daffodils. Among these are:
- Geraniums
- Echinacea
- Peonies
- Roses
- Hosta
- Lilies
Planting spring bulb companions in your landscape creates interest, color, and texture in your early springtime garden. Your choices in planting style are endless, from formal rows to freely flowing sweeps to random naturalization.
If you have open space, such as the verge of a woodland, a hillside, or a field, you can naturalize daffodils, grape hyacinth, daylilies, crocus, and ranunculus for a dazzling display of color.
If you only have limited space, remember that you can also do companion planting in containers and planters.
Even if you just have one planter, you can ensure that you’ll have blooms all season by choosing bulbs that can be planted at varying depths and have different bloom times.
Published at Fri, 01 Apr 2022 07:10:00 -0400