Daffodils – Day 7

 

Daffodils – Day 7

All the daffodils are now open and soon their fragile beauty will begin to fade.

The poem, Daffodils, was written by Charles A. Heath, known as the nature poet. about whom I can find little information.

And now here come the daffodils,

The trumpeters of spring,

All tooting joy, which thrills and thrills,

The while again they bring

Their happiest note attuned with cheer

To tell that spring is truly here. 

 

 I am always glad when daffodils

Lift up their golden horn,

To wake a day whose waking fills

With mellowness the morn,

And lures the southwinds thru the air

To bear away my winter’s care.

 

I always thought the daffodils

Which rise from frigid earth

Were heroines with hearts and wills

To understand the worth

Of holding hope thru days severe,

And burst with joy when spring is here.

 

So blow your best, dear daffodils,

I will listen full and long,

To every note which ever thrills

With your returning song;

And when at night I rest my head,

I will dream sweet dreams thus comforted.

How long will they continue to lend their brightness, how soon before they droop and die? It would be too sad to document their demise and so I bring this journey to an end.

One final poem, this one by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower?

 

Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower?

But I could never sell.

If you would like to borrow

Until the daffodil

 

Unties her yellow bonnet

Beneath the village door,

Until the bees, from clover rows

Their hock and sherry draw,

 

Why, I will lend until just then,

But not an hour more!

I hope those of you awaiting your own daffodils will soon be rewarded for your patience. My garden daffodils have not yet bloomed but I found a violet a few days ago! April already?

Daffodils – Day 6

 

Daffodils – Day 6

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) wrote the following poem in 1648.

To Daffodils

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon;

As yet the early-rising sun

Has not attain’d his noon.

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song;

And, having pray’d together, we

Will go with you along.

 

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

As you, or anything.

We die

As your hours do, and dry

Away,

Like to the summer’s rain;

Or as the pearls of morning’s dew,

Ne’er to be found again.

In 1986 the daffodil was adopted by the Marie Curie charity as a symbol of strength, resilience, hope, joy and new beginnings. Marie Curie is the UK’s leading end of life charity. The annual Great Daffodil Appeal occurs in March and each daffodil worn represents a donation to the charity.

There are several hospices across the country and Marie Curie nurses also attend terminally ill patients in their own homes. My sister’s nurse made her last days full of laughter and Beryl died with a smile on her lips.

The American Cancer Society, the Cancer Society New Zealand the Canadian Cancer Society, Cancer Council of Australia all use the yellow cheerfulness of the daffodil to symbolise their campaigns.

Maria Salomea Skłodowska (1867-1934) was born in the Kingdom of Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, in Warsaw. She studied at Warsaw University and then later in Paris, where she subsequently conducted her scientific research. She married the French physicist Pierre Curie and it is by the name Marie Curie that she is remembered. In 1903, with her husband and the physicist, Henri Becquerel, she shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for pioneering work in the development of what she called the theory of ‘radioactivity. She and her husband were the first married couple to win a Nobel Prize.

In 19ll, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium. She remains the only person to have won a Nobel Prize in two sciences. During WWI she developed mobile radiography units for use in field hospitals. It is probable that she died, in 1966, from the effects of radiation exposure, the official diagnosis being aplastic anaemia.

Marie Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, won the 1935 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Her younger daughter, Ève, became the director of UNICEF and her husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, as a representative of UNICEF. It is quite remarkable for one family to have received such acclaim.

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.

Daffodils – Day 3

 

Daffodils – Day 3

Daffodil’s Return, Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

What matter if the sun be lost?

What matter though the sky be gray?

There’s joy enough about the house,

For Daffodil comes home today.

 

There’s news of swallows on the air,

There’s word of April on the way,

They’re calling flowers within the street,

And Daffodil comes home today.

 

O who would care what fate may bring,

Or what the years may take away!

There’s life enough within the hour,

For Daffodil comes home today.

Although we refer to these flowers are daffodils, their botanical name is Narcissus. In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a beautiful, self-absorbed youth, who fell in love with his own reflection. In despair at being unable to reach the gorgeous vision he died and in his place there grew a lovely flower. The drooping flowers of the plant are said to represent Narcissus bending over the pool to admire his reflection.

Narcissus also gives his name to narcissism, or narcissistic personality disorder, an affliction which causes the subject to display grandiosity and to demand excessive attention and admiration. Narcissists also show a marked lack of empathy. Some examples are Alexander the Great, Henry VIII, Catherine the Great, Adolf Hitler and possibly an orange-hued politician from across the pond.

Narcissus derives from the Greek ‘narkōticos’, meaning to ‘make stiff or numb’. Its etymology probably relates to the daffodil's toxicity, since all parts of the plant are poisonous. Care should be taken when cutting daffodil stems because the alkaloids in the sap can cause a rash if they come into contact with the skin.

Daffodils have inspired painters and poets. William Wordsworth’s well-known poem,,written in 1804, 6 was conceived on a walk in 1802 with his sister Dorothy in the Lake District. Dorothy described the sight in her journal.

When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the lake had floated the seed ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up – But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway – We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the Sea.

Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere Journal Thursday, 15 April 1802

Artists who have been drawn to paint daffodils have included Berthe Morisot (1841–1892)

Daffodils

Carl Thomsen (1847-1912)

Arranging daffodils

Floris Hendrik Verster (1861-1927)

Daffodils in a ginger jar

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)

Still life with daffodils

Thomas Corsan Morton (1859-1928)

Daffodils

Annie L Pressland (1862-1933)

Daffodils

Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947)

Daffodils in a Green Pot

All painting images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Daffodils are often depicted on Easter cards and are sometimes called the Lent or Lenten lily because they flower around Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the six weeks of Lent leading to Easter.

Daffodils – Day 4

Daffodils – Day 4

Daffy-down-dilly has come up to town

in a fine petticoat and a green gown.

18th century English nursery rhyme

In 1950, the RHS Daffodil Society organised a system of classifying daffodils into 13 different divisions.

Trumpet daffodil,large-cupped daffodil, small-cupped daffodil, double daffodil, triandrus daffodil, cyclamineus daffodil, Jonquil and apodanthus daffodils, Tazetta daffodil, Poeticus daffodil (pure white); bulbocodium daffodil (petticoat daffodil); split-corona daffodil; other daffodils (!!); daffodils known only by botanical name – there are 10 sections in this division, some flowering in spring, others autumn flowering.

Trumpet daffodil

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Pity the poor judges at flower shows, particularly speciality daffodil shows  of which there are at least 12 in the British Isles in 2024!

Double daffodil Narcissus 'Bridal Crown'
  Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Triandrus daffodil, also known as 'Angel's Tears daffodil'

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Cyclamineus daffodil

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Jonquil daffodil

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Poeticus daffodil

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Bulbocodium daffodil, also known as petticoat daffodil

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Daffodils – Day 2

 

Daffodils – Day 2

‘Daffodowndilly’ by A.A.Milne, from ‘When We Were Very Young’, 1924

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour;

“Winter is dead.”

We owe our beautiful, perennial daffodils to the Romans, who brought them to Britain from the Iberian Peninsula, mainly Portugal and Spain, which have the widest variety of daffodil species. The Romans planted narcissus to honour soldiers killed in battle and also to commemorate loved ones.

There are more than 27,000 cultivated varieties and most of them are in varying shades of yellow. However, the ‘Poeticus’ strains have white petals and there are some yellows that tend towards orange or salmon. It has been known for clumps of daffodils to survive in the ground for more than a century, faithfully blooming each year.

Growing a daffodil from seed can take five years. Until the 1800s, daffodils were wild species or natural crossbreeds.

 In the 19^th century breeders began to choose flowers for different characteristics and so the modern daffodil was born. A man who became known as ‘the daffodil maker’, the Reverend George Herbert Engleheart, registered 720 new daffodil hybrids between 1882 and 1923, though only about thirty are still available commercially. His particular work, for which he is best known, was with the ‘Poeticus’ varieties. He is often referred to as the father of the modern daffodil. In addition to his work with daffodils, he was a noted amateur archaeologist.

The UK is the world’s biggest grower of daffodils.

A to Z challenge 2023 - D is for . . .

 

A to Z challenge 2023 – D is for . . .

My theme for this challenge is Nature in all much of her wonderful diversity. My posts will reflect the fact that I am resident in the south of England.

All photographs in this post are the property of the writer

Daffodils

The Latin name for daffodil is Narcissus. Narcissus was a beautiful young man. When he caught sight of his reflection in a pool of water, he became so bewitched by his own beauty that he fell in love with his image. He could not tear his gaze away and faded away into death. He was then turned into a flower, the daffodil we know today in its many forms.

The daffodil is one of the first perennials to flower in Spring and as such is a symbol of rebirth and hope. Daffodils were introduced to England by the Romans who thought that the sap had healing powers.

In England, it is known as the Lent or Lenten lily, because it blooms between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It is also the symbol of the Marie Curie cancer charity and is worn throughout March as a sign of support.

It is the national flower of Wales, and is proudly worn at public events, along with the leek, which predates it by thousands of years!

Victorians called daffodils the flower of respect and friendship and they are a traditional gift for tenth wedding anniversaries. Florists often add them to bouquets as a symbol of faith and happiness. Once upon a time, however, giving someone a single daffodil was seen as bad luck, and a drooping daffodil signalled death. (Not much hope in my garden, then, as the dogs gallop around, ‘bending’ many a bloom!)

D is also for Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

Dunnocks are small, unobtrusive grey and brown birds. The name dunnock comes from the English ‘dun’ meaning dingy brown or dark-coloured and ‘ock’ meaning small.

They are often seen alone or with one other on the ground near hedges and low-growing shrubs, unlike house sparrows, which live in flocks. They are known as Hedge sparrows because of a passing resemblance to female house sparrows, but their bills are quite distinct, the sparrow’s beak being broader, for cracking seeds, and the dunnock’s thin and pointed and more suited to plucking insects from leaves and twigs.

They are very common throughout the UK in areas of plentiful vegetation. They have a characteristic habit of flicking their wings, particularly in territorial disputes, and for this reason are commonly called ‘shufflewings’. Numbers have dropped by almost a third in the last fifty years and the birds are now on the amber list of conservation concern.

They eat insects, spiders, worms and some seeds.

Dunnocks can copulate more than 100 times a day. The female dunnock will mate with several males, meaning that chicks within the same brood may have different fathers. Sometimes two males she has mated with will work together to protect a territory against rivals and help her to raise her young.

Chicks may be raised by a single female, or by many females with the help of a male, or by many females and males together. Although males are not thought to discriminate between the chicks in a brood, they invest more time in feeding the young if they have had access to the female and may therefore have impregnated her.

Their nests are built low down in a bush or conifer and are constructed of twigs and moss and lined with feathers or other soft material. The eggs, laid in clutches of three to five, are blue.

The nests are often targeted by cuckoos.

Although they appear quite plain, a closer inspection reveals intricate feather patterns. It is always a pleasure to see these little birds at home in my garden.

My final D is for Deer.

The deer in our local woodlands are Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). They are one of the two truly native deer of the British Isles, though they are not found in Ireland. The other native deer are the red deer.

Their colouring enables them to blend into the environment. There are two in this photograph.

‘Bambi’, Felix Salten’s book (1928), was originally about the life of a roe deer.

Roe deer are about 75 cm tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 25 kg. Their natural lifespan in the wild averages 10 years. 

Their coat colour varies from rusty red in the summer to slate grey in the winter and both doe and buck have a white rump. The doe’s white rump is heart-shaped and the buck’s is shaped like a kidney. 

Young buck

Roebucks have three-pointed antlers when they are fully adult and unlike other deer, begin to regrow them almost immediately after shedding them. Their main diet is grass, leaves, berries and the shoots of young trees.

The breeding season or ‘rut’ is from mid-July to August, when bucks battle for the right to mate with a receptive doe. Roe deer delay the implantation of a fertilised egg until January to avoid giving birth in harsh winter conditions when food is scarce, so although gestation is 9 months, the first four months see no growth followed by five months of developing embryo. The does give birth to two or three kids in May or June, but many perish shortly after birth, often due to predation, or during the cold of their first winter.

They are wary and ready to flee at the slightest hint of danger

The best times to see them are around dawn and dusk when they are feeding. Daytime is spent hidden from view, ruminating.

Most ruminants have stomachs with four chambers. These allow the animals to digest food without completely chewing it first. Some is brought back up to be chewed again and this is called chewing the cud, commonly observed in cattle.

They are graceful creatures, able to bound effortlessly over fences and hedges. It is incredible to see them apparently ‘melt’ into the landscape.