The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is calling on gardeners to help bring a rare pink daffodil back into cultivation as the RHS’s Daffodil Diaries campaign returns for a second year today.
Daffodil Diaries invites the UK’s 34 million gardeners to log daffodils growing in their garden and local public and community spaces. In 2025 there were nearly 3,000 submissions from across the country, from the Scilly Isles to the Outer Hebrides.
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The mapping of spring flowering daffodils last year revealed that 60 per cent of those grown in the UK are trumpet daffodils, with all-yellow varieties dominating (56 per cent). The all-yellow trumpet proved most popular (42 per cent), followed by all-yellow double flowers (8 per cent) and yellow and white cups (5 per cent).
Just 6 per cent of daffodils were reported to contain pink. Working with conservation charity Plant Heritage, the RHS also called on the public to help it find three rare daffodil varieties in 2025: the original pink trumpeted daffodil ‘Mrs R.O Backhouse’, white double flowered ‘Mrs William Copeland’ and orange and yellow double flower ‘Sussex Bonfire’.
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Over 1,000 sightings were submitted and in 2026 owners of those thought to be one of the three will be invited to dig them up after flowering this year for the RHS to grow on at its John MacLeod Field Research Facility at Wisley. A panel of experts will then assess the flowers in spring 2027 and any found to be Narcissus 'Mrs R.O Backhouse' can, with the owner’s permission, be donated to daffodil breeder Scamps Daffodils who is working with the Backhouse Rossie Estate to bring it back into widespread cultivation and ensure it remains in UK gardens for the future.
“Our Daffodil Diaries mapping project has revealed the daffodil to be a truly national flower, being grown in all four corners of the country," says RHS principal plant scientist Dr Kálmán Könyves. "Yellow daffodils are far and away the most popular, not unsurprising for their welcome burst of colour, but it is interesting to note that the more adaptable pinks have proven less popular than we might have assumed, and green and red varieties negligible, highlighting the importance in maintaining cultivated diversity in gardens.”
"With 30,000 daffodil varieties thought to be available in the UK, telling one from another requires an experienced eye, but this diversity is fundamental to their potential benefit for people and planet and why it’s so important we celebrate and preserve them," says RHS chief horticulturist Guy Barter, who will lead the trial and manage bulb submission and returns.
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"Rare daffodils were spotted across the country and raising them in one location next year will enable us to confirm some of them as the rare varieties we have been searching for and, potentially, find others thought to be in decline."
For more information about Daffodil Diaries, and to map daffodil sightings or submit rare varieties please visit rhs.org.uk
Submissions are open until 30th June 2026.
