Brightening your garden with Brodie’s daffodil heritage

Brodie Castle’s daffodils are world famous, and in springtime the grounds are ablaze in bright yellow hues. Between 1899 and 1942, Major Ian Brodie, the 24th Laird of Brodie raised tens of thousands of daffodils in the walled garden at the beautiful Morayshire estate that’s now in the protection of our charity.

Major Brodie bred over 400 named cultivars, of which 116 can be seen today in the National Collection of Brodie Daffodils at Brodie Castle.

Nowadays, the daffodil collection includes over 200 named heritage varieties. Not all were bred by Ian Brodie, but he would have known them all. Some are cultivars that he himself bred, some were raised by others he used for breeding, and others were bred from his creations by other breeders.

This autumn, the Trust is offering the public the chance to take a piece of this gardening heritage home and plant some heritage varieties in their own gardens. There’ll be a special sale of daffodil bulbs at Brodie Castle and Abertarff House in Inverness from 30 September to 6 October 2019.

These bulbs are a selection of the heritage varieties, some bred by Brodie and some from other breeders. They all represent a unique part of the early history of daffodil breeding and many can be found in the parentage of modern daffodil varieties.

The National Trust for Scotland works every day to protect Scotland’s national and natural treasures. From coastlines to castles, art to architecture, wildlife to wilderness, we protect all of this For the Love of Scotland.

In Our Strategy for Protecting Scotland’s Heritage 2018–23, we set out how we’re planning to work towards our vision that Scotland’s heritage is valued by everyone and protected now, and for future generations.