Our ‘Golden Dawn’ been blooming since the beginning of March, peaked in mid March, and are still going as we head into April. Not every year has been this spectacular with ‘Golden Dawn’, but this one certainly was. They pick up as our heirlooms are faded (jonquils, campernelles, Lent lilies, butter and eggs, incomparable) and then carry us to April. Blooms appear in concert with our azalea blooms, and seemingly without fail, the ‘Golden Dawn’ bloom coincides with the bass spawning in our East Texas lakes. These flowers shout spring and are a golden ticket to March success in the garden!
The ‘Golden Dawn’ is special for a variety of reasons.
Blooms
The ‘Golden Dawn’ is a reliable March bloomer and you can count on them being in bloom the second or third week of March. This makes a nice addition to a garden or landscape later in the daffodil season. Each stalk will have multiple flowers which really add to the fullness of the stand. They also make great cut flowers because of the multiple flowers per stem.
Size
The Narcissus ‘Golden Dawn’ has smaller bulbs but the blooms are taller than many heirloom daffodils as it will grow 12–16″ tall. This really allows the blooms to make a bold statement in your garden and serve as cut flowers as well.
Color
The color of the bloom of this bulb really make a dramatic statement when viewed up close or at a distance en masse. The petals of the ‘Golden Dawn’ are a sunshine yellow surrounding a pale orange/gold cup. The color is best viewed from a distance after the bulbs have spent several years multiplying. Think of an impressionist painter making broad strokes across a canvas using light and dark gold colors.
Fragrance
The Narcissus ‘Golden Dawn’ has a light, sweet fragrance. This fragrance can add an extra dimension of beauty to the flower and make it more attractive to pollinators like bees and butterflies.
What is a Narcissus tazetta?
The ‘Golden Dawn’ is a Narcissus tazetta hybrid. Narcissus tazetta have smaller but numerous blooms on one stalk and are often fragrant. They are generally more robust in warmer climates than the smaller species flower bulbs. The Narcissus ‘Golden Dawn’ has become a perennial selection of Narcissus used in heirloom gardens, and there is no doubt this reliable bloomer will return for generations in old garden homesites.
Landscaping Tip
Narcissus bloom at different times so as one daffodil is ending its bloom time another is just beginning. We like to say that “there is a bulb that blooms every week of the year in warmer climates.” Your garden can have consistent flowers that you can enjoy inside or outside for months and the ‘Golden Dawn’ will carry you all the way through March and into April. Narcissus begin blooming at the end of January all the way through April, and this flower solidly takes up a month in that range.
