Growing daffodils in the Tamar valley

Hillary Mayıs 15, 2022

After a weekend of rain and thick fog remembering the sight and smell of this field of daffodils seen on our recent holiday, brings a bit of colour back into my day!

One of the joys of visiting Devon and Cornwall at the end of the March is to come across fields of daffodils and primroses growing in the banks of the country lanes.

The sun was so bright it is difficult to see clearly the primroses!

We visitied Cotehele on the banks of the Tamar (The Tamar river provides a natural boundary separating the counties of Devon and Cornwall.It is a beautiful manor house with some parts dating back to Tudor times, and has a wonderful garden that was full of daffodils.

With the milder weather in the South West, in times gone by this part of the Tamar valley was full of market gardens supplying fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers to London and other parts of England. There are only a few market gardens remaining, but the stories and history behind them are still kept alive at Cotehele.

Picking the daffodils

If you have around ten minutes free, this video from Youtube, of the BBC series the "The Edwardian Farm" shows the daffodils been picked in the fields and sent off by train. It starts at 2 minutes thirty, but the pictures of the introduction are always a delight to see!

Cotehele was holding a daffodil weekend when we visited and they were showing many different varieties of daffodils. There are around 250 different varieties planted in the garden.. The variety Seagull caught my eye it was quite small and delicate - the only bloom is showing above the piece of slate.(Sorry the image isn't very clear.)

The orchards of Cotehele contain many old local apple varieties and were full of daffodils too. The scene looking across the valley to the railway line and river Tamar at Calstock was just magical.

As we drove along the Tamar valley back to our holiday chalet, we came across a "pick your own" daffodil field, as we had already bought some daffodils on sale at Cotehele, we didn't stop but will remember it for future reference. We enjoyed these lovely flowers all week in our holiday home.