DAFFODILS are among the easiest plants to grow. Just dig a hole, make sure the bulbs are the right way up, and cover with a couple of inches of soil. Nature will do the rest with spectacular results.

That may seem like an over-simplification but it isn't. In fact, the more complicated we make it, the less likely we are to meet with success. Planting with manure, or an unbalanced fertiliser, for instance, may be ruinous.

The easier the planting, the more attention we can pay to choosing from the thousands of varieties available and deciding where to plant them.

There is always some excellent advice about daffodils in the catalogue of Broadleigh Gardens, the West Country nursery that specialises in small bulbs and has a particularly wide range of the short-stemmed daffodils so ideal for windy positions, rock gardens, and naturalising in grass.

Lady Skelmersdale, who runs the nursery, does point out that while the daffodil is one of the easiest and least demanding of plants to grow, the species do need more understanding and care. If they are happy, they will become established and multiply.

Only a few of the daffodils her nursery lists are species, the majority being hybrids - generally crosses between small species and larger-flowered varieties which give them more vigour and adaptability. These hybrid daffodils will grow almost anywhere.

Species daffodils may be seen all over the high ground in Spain and Portugal, where N. asturiensis, bulbocodium, ruplcola and triandrus are found growing through the melting snow like crocus in the Alps.

The jonquils, however, seem to like places where the soil is often heavy and where they get a thorough baking in summer. Few of the tazetta species are hardy in this country and then only in unusually warm spots but their hybrids the Poetaz are much hardier and make excellent cut flowers.

You can see that once we begin to talk about the different kinds of daffodil, the more complicated our subject becomes. There are 13 different divisions.

The bulbocodiums, or hoop petticoat daffodils, are one group in which interest seems to grow rapidly. These are the tiny daffs, often little more than five or six inches high, which grow almost all over the Iberian peninsula in varying conditions from marshland to dry road verges. When grown in this country, it is found that those which increase by seed flower well but those whose bulbs split are likely to be flowerless after a few years.

Broadleigh Gardens has a super collection of these daffodils. You can choose from:

Albidus Zainaicus. - A rare and attractive pale self-yellow hoop petticoat species. Height: 5ins. Flowers: Feb.

Cantabricus Clusii (x albidus). - A beautiful virgin-white hoop petticoat winter-flowering species. Height: 6ins. Flowers: Jan.

Cantabricus Foliosus. - A very early free-flowering variety with creamy-white flowers. Increases well. Height: 7ins. Flowers: Jan-Feb.

Hybrid Ex Mesatlanticus. - Wide lemon hoops. Very free-flowering. Height: 9ins. Flowers: Jan-Feb.

Nylon. - Milk-white and sweetly scented. A cross between romieuxii and foliosus. Early flowering. Height: 5ins. Flowers: Dec-Jan.

Romieuxii. - Wide flaring flowers of clear sulphur-yellow. Grows well in well-drained places but best protected in frame or alpine house. Height: 6ins. Flowers: Jan-Feb.

Taffeta. - One of the Blanchard hybrids. Pale creamy-yellow flowers with quite wide cups. Height: 6ins. Flowers: Jan-Feb.

Bulbocodium Citrinus. - Seed-raised from stock. Pale lemon hoop petticoats. Does best in moist, acid soil. Height: 8ins. Flowers: Apr.

Bulbocodium Filifoltus. - Very vigorous virtually evergreen bulbocodium. Slender golden flowers above short, narrow leaves. Height: 6ins. Flowers: Mar.

Bulbocodium Vulgaris Conspicuus. - A rather more robust variety with deep yellow flowers. Increases well in damp soil. Height: 5ins. Flowers: Late Mar.

Bulbocodium (Hort). - Unlike many bulbocodiums which are slow to flower unless really happy, this cultivated form produces its deep yellow flowers freely. Height: 6ins. Flowers: Apr.

Golden Bells. - A truly magnificent bulbocodium. Large well rounded flowers of much substance. Height: 7ins Flowers: Mar-Apr.

This is the sort of advice a gardener needs when it comes to choosing bulbs and I heartily commend the catalogue which can be obtained by sending two first-class stamps to Broadleigh Gardens, Bishops Hull, Taunton, Somerset, TA4 1AE