If you’ve ever taken home a bundle of daffodils from our market and been surprised to see a pink & white bloom opening up before your eyes (or anything other than the typical yellow flute-shaped blooms), than this is the newsletter for you! While there are 100s of varieties of daffodils, we currently have 5 that are locally grown by Warmerdam Bulb Co.
Warmerdam Bulb Co is a family of farmers growing daffodils (among other things) in Bradner, made up of 3 generations working alongside each other. While their family has been growing daffodils in Holland since the 1600s, after they immigrated to Canada they continued the tradition in Bradner when they bought their farm in 1966.
Karly, amongst the youngest of the Warmerdams, grew up on the farm. During that time, the farm’s main job was providing yellow daffodils to the Cancer Society, but in recent years she has had an interest in bringing back some of the lesser known, unique varieties and selling them in local markets.
Karly loves the connection to her community that this approach to selling flowers affords her, and we love the gorgeous varieties that she brings us! Now you may notice that when you’re choosing daffodils from the market we don’t keep them in water. This isn’t because we’re neglecting them, we’ve actually been given very specific instructions to do this. The reason is that putting a cut daffodil in water will allow it to open up and bloom, and once it blooms it only has a few days of looking it’s fullest and most vibrant. We keep them out of water to slow this process down, so that when you take them home you get to enjoy them to their fullest potential.
When you get your daffodils home, be sure to trip the ends of the stems and put them in cold water out of direct sunlight.
Here are the 5 Varieties of Daffodils grown by Warmerdam Bulb Co that we have at our market right now (and not for too much longer!):
