“Then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils”.
William Wordsworth
Though they have now been mostly supplanted by tulips, bluebells and greenery in our garden; daffodils (or Narcissi) are the flower I have brought into our home most this spring. From the £1 supermarket joy-inducing bargain daffs to the impossibly tall, delicate paperwhites and the varieties that have grown from the bulbs I planted in the ground in the closing days of November.
What’s in a name?
The words ‘daffodil’ and ‘Narcissus’ are often used interchangeably but daffodil is the common name for the spring flowering bulb in the genus Narcissus (of which there are many varieties), so calling them ‘Narcissus’ covers all bases.
The word ‘daffodil’ is possibly from the Old English word “affodyle”, which means “that which cometh early” referring to its appearance in early spring. ‘Narcissus’ is believed to come from the Ancient Greek myth about the hunter Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, eventually turning into a yellow and white flower. Arabic poets spoke of daffodils being the eyes of the garden and they often crop up in English literature from Shakespeare (“Daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty”) to the Romantics, Keats and famously, Wordsworth.
As one of the earliest flowers to bring colour after the stark, cold days of winter, daffodils symbolise rebirth and new beginnings. There is nothing more uplifting than the appearance of a clump of daffodils rising from the earth interspersed with hellebores and snowdrops to signal that spring is on its way.
National treasure.
Being the daughter of a Welshman, daffodils featured throughout my childhood. The daffodil, a quintessential symbol of Wales, conveniently blooms around the beginning of March in time for St David’s Day on the 1st. The daffodil was made popular as a symbol by David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister of Welsh descent (1916-1922) who advocated for them to be worn on lapels in place of the traditional leek.
As well as being an important national symbol, the daffodil is also a form of currency…! To this day, the Isles of Scilly (where Narcissi grow abundantly) pay rent of one daffodil each year to the Duchy of Cornwall which owns the land.
My daffodils.
A clump of buttery wild daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) were the first to emerge in our garden in February, from bulbs that must have been planted by the previous owners.
Before they appeared, I had planted Paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus ‘Ziva’) in pots for ‘forcing’ indoors which bloomed in that hazy time between Christmas and New Year and continued to deliver a silvery white papery light into the darkest depths of January.
In the last days of November, I planted Narcissus ‘Cragford’ and the diminutive Narcissus ‘Canaliculatus’, i.e. the only varieties I was able to get hold of in late November when I made a very last minute bulb order! Thankfully all of the bulbs bloomed despite my very late planting and lack of planning. I particularly loved the Cragfords and have cut the ones on the cusp of going over, to bring into the house for more close-up enjoyment.
This year, I have good intentions to plan and buy the bulbs earlier (I have my eye on Narcissus ‘Elka‘, Narcissus ‘Ariel’, Narcissus ‘Bridal Crown’ Narcissus ‘My Story’, Narcissus ‘Silver Chimes’ and Narcissus ‘Toto‘ and everything below…!) and I will aim to plant more in pots and in the ground in the hope of creating, through the eyes of Wordsworth, “a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils”.
