Daffodils – Day 5

 

Daffodils – Day 5

I don’t know what happened with the numbering system – Days 3 and 4 were confused and so was I, apparently. Anyway, this is Day 5!

I need not have worried that the daffodils would fail to open. 

 Today’s poem is called ‘My Daffodils’ and was written by the American poet Arthur Goodenough (1871-1936)

When April thrills the wakening hills,

The sunshine on their summits spills

The charm divine of amber wine –

Then come the darling daffodils –

The darling, darling daffodils!

 

While winter chills yet rarely kills,

And slowly yet the Dream fulfils,

In mist and rain they come again,

The dainty, dancing daffodils –

The dream-descended daffodils.

 

When vapor crawls and mountain walls

Give back the cuckoo’s ringing calls,

Old friends and dear they reappear,

The dauntless, dainty daffodils,

The hope-inspiring daffodils!

 

Before the swallow wings his flight,

Or frosts have ceased to blast and blight,

With rapture fine their faces shine;

The bliss-begotten daffodils,

The bliss-bestowing daffodils.

National Trust Cotehele in Cornwall has a unique collection of heritage daffodils, including 19^th century hybrids, the descendants of the once-thriving flower industry in the valley of the River Tamar. The ‘Little Gardens’, as the fields were known locally, were farmed by generations of families, sending flowers and fresh produce by rail to the large city markets. After WWII the industry declined and the fields were no longer tended.  Discarded daffodil bulbs were thrown away but continued to flower unnoticed for years.

Volunteers at Cotehele collected many of the rare daffodils and a local grower added old ‘historic’ bulbs from his collection. These flowers have been catalogued and are established and protected in the Cotehele gardens.