Daffodil Obsession!

I am unabashedly obsessed with DAFFODILS and have been for years! This time of year I start to yearn for the first signs of their green shoots poking up through the ground where I've planted bulbs en masse autumn after autumn after autumn. Maybe its because I'm an April baby and have always been head over heals in LOVE with SPRING as a rule. There is just something about the smell of mud and rotting leaves mixed with the bittersweet sharpness of a daffodil right under your nose that is somehow divine! Being able to bring daffodils in at the shop beginning in February is a treat and a tease...especially when winter promises to hang around for a while.

For you science folk: The daffodil is of the...

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Lilliopsida
Order: Liliales
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Genus: Narcissus

Species in the Narcissus genus have that familiar shape including a corona, the central "trumpet," and perianth, or the six floral leaves that surround it. Hundreds of wild and cultivated species include colors that range from yellow to gold, white, peach, salmon, and orange.

For your wordsmiths: (mostly for Angela) The word "daffodil" appears in English vocabulary in the 1500's. Prior to that the daffodil was call "affodyle" which means "cometh early." The Dutch word "de affodil," is said to be the origin term derived from the Greek "asphodel," the flower that bloomed over the meadows where the souls of the dead wandered.

For you historians: The ancient Greeks believed the Narcissus plant originated from vain "Narcissus" who died after becoming so obsessed with his own reflection in a pool that he simply could not leave. The gods supposedly turned his remains into the Narcissus flower. In ancient China there is a legend about a poor but good man who was brought many cups of gold and wealth by this flower. Chinese folklore says that the daffodil which is groomed to bloom on the Chinese New Year will bring good fortune for the next twelve months.

For the poets:

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


STOP IN FOR A DAFFODIL FIX!
Creative Muse Floral Design
261 Main Street, Enosburg Falls
802.933.4403
www.creativemusevt.com