Daffodil ‘Starlight Sensation’

* Common name: Daffodil ‘Starlight Sensation’

* Botanical name: Narcissus ‘Starlight Sensation’

* What it is: This triandrus-type daffodil from famed Virginia daffodil breeder Brent Heath has big, white flowers and lots of them. Flowers open bright-white in mid-April and can last into early May.

   Each bulb produces three to five stems, and each of those carry two to four flowers, adding up to an unusually full show when they’re planted about four inches apart. Flowers are mildly fragrant, too, and like all daffodils, not attractive to deer or rodents.

   ‘Starlight Sensation’ was good enough to win best-daffodil honors at the 2017 Philadelphia Flower Show, and it’s a sister to ‘Moonlight Sensation’ (pale yellow) and ‘Sunlight Sensation’ (medium yellow).

* Size: 16 inches tall, including the flowers. Plant bulbs four to six inches apart.

* Where to use: Great massed around trees, in rock gardens, or toward the front of any garden bed to add a big splash of early color. Also makes a nice edging plant along walks or around mailboxes. Sun or part shade.

* Care: Plant bulbs in October, and plants and flowers will come up in early spring for years, often increasing their spread rather than dying out, as is common with most tulips.

   Scatter ground with Bulb-tone, Bulb Booster, or a balanced organic fertilizer each spring. Cut flower stalks after bloom but wait until leaves yellow or brown before cutting them to ground later in spring.

   Bulbs can be dug and divided at leaf cutback time if you want to move any.

* Great partner: Interplant with its two sisters for a mass of white and yellow color. ‘Starlight Sensation’ also looks good next to any gold-foliage shrub, such as dwarf goldthread falsecypress, golden Hinoki cypress, or golden junipers.