The West Chicago Garden Club

After a major cleanup at the Kruse garden, two truckloads of branches, leaves, and garden debris were hauled away. Spring bulbs started pushing out of the ground, many seemingly appearing overnight. The daffodil buds are starting to open; some so rounded and plump as if saying they are happy in their location. Somewhere in the back of memory was a glimmer of a poem about daffodils. Punching in “daffodils poem” Google came through with the most well-known poem on daffodils.

Daffodils

I wonder’d 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…

By William Wordsworth [1804]

Over 200 years ago, William, at the age of 34, admired a flower that we still see in our gardens. Actually, the daffodil name is recorded from the 16th century, the name, aphodile from Medieval Latin. Just think, King Henry Vlll of England, strolled and admired it in his gardens, and called it Lent lily or daffydown dilly. Other names are narcissus, jonquil, fleurde coucou, perillon. In Wales it is the national emblem.

Daffodils belong to the Amaryllis family, over 50 species, many hybrids, and many colors. They can be white, yellow, green, pink, peach, orange, and an almost red. Some are extremely flagrant, growing in multiple clusters on one stem. Some appear almost with the last snow, while others open so much later. A true daffodil has a long trumpet in the center, like in the old varieties “King Alfred” and the exquisite white “Thalia”. A narcissus hastiny petals that form a small bowl in the center, such as in the beautiful old “Poet’s Daffodil”. And if it is yellow, just call it jonquil.

Daffodils symbolize the arrival of spring, friendship and new beginnings. At the Kruse Garden, the golden daffodils are trumpeting amid the blue grape hyacinths planted more than 60 years ago. Are they a “new beginning” or an “old beginning” beginning again?