In A Vase On Monday – Daffodils
Every Monday Cathy from Rambling In The Garden invites us to share a vase assembled from materials collected in our gardens.
Last week I mentioned the first daffodils had begun opening in my garden and many more have opened since. I have been seeing them around town three or four weeks earlier. And on Friday I spotted a clump near the roadside that ignited my imagination. How many years I wondered have they survived encroachment from highway and utility crews, their appearance marking a place where once the land supported a family and a way of life.
Seeing the roadside patch of daffodils reminded to search back for an old post. Hope you won’t mind that I decided to share with you again.
But first, today’s vase: a handful of Narcissus ‘King Alfred’ and a few N. ‘Tete-a-Tete’ placed into a favorite blue matte-finished ceramic jar. I love picking daffodils. There is immense satisfaction in reaching down to the bottom of each stem and snapping it as one would snap a green bean. It is impossible not to smile.
In A Vase On Monday – Daffodils
Materials
Flowers
Narcissus ‘King Alfred’
Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’
Container
Handmade ceramic lidded jar
In A Vase On Monday – Daffodils
Daffodils
I grew up inside a small town in the rural south, surrounded by fields of cotton, tobacco, corn and soybeans. Driving away from town with my family to visit relatives on Sundays, riding past these fields, nearly every house I would see for miles and miles at this time of year had a clump or two of dancing yellow daffodils, announcing spring.
Narcissus ‘King Alfred’ (trumpet daffodil)
As one would expect time has altered this bucolic landscape. Driving in the countryside nowadays past these old homesites, there is evidence of past lives. With owners having died out, many of these old homesteads now sit abandoned. Heirs perhaps found jobs elsewhere and live too far away to maintain the homes, yet they keep memories alive by holding onto the property. Or perhaps they await better offers from the developers.
Regardless, often the land sits idle. Even if the buildings are long gone, almost always there remains a towering oak tree beside where the house once stood, and nearby, a patch of daffodils.
One spring along a familiar stretch of road that my husband and I had travelled for many years, I pointed out to him just such an old homesite.
I had never known who once had lived there, but the cheerful daffodils blooming near the old drive were a sight I knew to expect and to watch for.
Viewed from a car window those flowers had greeted me annually for decades, as they must have welcomed home the family that once inhabited the property. I haven’t travelled that road in a while, but that season I was not disappointed.
Intrigued, my husband wrote this poem.
Daffodils
Within this clearing rife with weeds,
No homely headstones stand askew,
But daffodils in patches tell
That here once worked a hand, a heart,
And there once stood a house, a home.No headstones set this ground apart,
But daffodils in patches tell
Of heart and home as sure as bones.(DVM, v.G, April 2007)
Reprinted: (Daffodils. February 15, 2013. https://pbmgarden.blog/2013/02/15/daffodils/).
Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’
Thanks to Cathy at Rambling In The Garden for hosting and giving us an opportunity to share daffodils and other flowers across the world. Visit her to discover what she and others found to place In A Vase On Monday.
pbmGarden 
Incredibile that across so many thousands of miles we share this wonderful memory of every home with its clump of daffodils. David’s poem is so poignant and your vase perfect simplicity. Daffodils mean spring to me more than any other flower even if here they are rare and never the first bulb to flower. Thank you.
Thanks Christina for sharing the love of daffodils and homeplace.
Nothing says ‘hello’ to a new gardening season like daffodils. 🙂
So true Judy, daffodils…
I remember your story from before and I believe I commented that I had seen a house where the daffodils were growing after the owners left. The property is well mowed now. I wonder if the daffodils are still trying to grow.
Thanks for remembering the post. I’d like to think the daffodils you mention will someday be allowed to flourish.
Your vase today is delightful but sharing the older post again gave it special significance. Your husband’s poem is fabulous. I often feel the same when passing by abandoned places, bittersweet fragments of the past, sometimes dotting now industrial areas. Thank you for sharing both your vase and the former post.
Thanks Peter. It’s inevitable i suppose the landscape will change. Nice that daffodils find a way to survive.
Love it all. Nothing shouts spring is coming as tastefully as a Daffodil.
Thanks, yes those daffodils know how to throw a party.
A beautiful vase Susie, and I remember this post too. Nothing quite like a blob of gold on a roadside. I have planted some at the entrance to our new home, but no sign of them yet.
Thanks Cathy. And I remember your grandfather was it, who planted daffodils all around town. What a legacy that is. Best of luck with the daffodils at your new home–a lovely way to say make it yours.
Yes, your post reminded me of those daffodils my grandad planted. 🙂
There is nothing more cheerful. I noticed a very few buds here but it will be a little while before we are picking.
Hi Alison. Cheerful is the word that seems to fit daffodils perfectly. They just bring a smile.
The daffodils are beautiful, as is your husband’s poem, Susie. It’s wonderful to realize that these bulbs, lovingly planted decades or more ago, continue to appear to brighten the lives of others as they signal spring’s arrival.
Hi Kris, amazing that some plants have such staying power. Daffodils never go out of style either.
What a lovely post, Susie – and in the same way I think they remind us that we too will no longer be here in due course but that life will still carry on without us. Whether we leave any evidence is perhaps up to us and what we ‘plant’ in our lives… ps daffodils and narciss in a blue vase will always be a good combination
Cathy, glad you enjoyed the daffodil post. I like that someone else will be able to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor.
Spring has come to pbmGarden! Your vase of Daffodils is so cheering as I shovelled another few inches of snow today. Daffs are amazingly hardy as your story attests and your husband’s poem is a thoughtful rememberence. Happy Spring!
Happy Spring Eliza. Hope that snow is just a memory now.
Thanks, Susie. Not warm enough lately to melt much snow. It’ll be with us probably through late March. But the sun is moving north more every day!
That’s a lovely poem and nod to the hard-working folks who settled the farmsteads along your route. Thanks for sharing the story and your beautiful Daffodils! I love them, and I’ve planted masses of them here, too. Fortunately, the rabbits don’t eat them like they do the Tulips.
Thanks Beth. Yes, it’s amazing how well daffodils hold up against the critters. I’ve planted tulips this year for the first time in ages and fingers crossed I get to them before the other interested parties.
Ah, no snowdrops. (They are getting old about now.)
When I was a kid, I plucked MANY daffodils and paperwhites from abandoned cut flower crops near my Pa’s home in Montara. They were from the same fields that Diego Rivera painted crews harvesting flowers in. A house was built on the site, which by itself, would not have been a problem; but weirdly, all the daffodils and paperwhites that had been naturalized there for decades were all bulldozed away . . . for nothing.
Thanks for sharing that memory Tony.
Nothing says ‘Spring’ like Daffodil!
Even more daffodils opened this week. Such a cheerful time. Happy Spring.
We have Peonies and Iris that the family who built our house in 1954 planted. They are a lovely reminder of the history of our house and neighborhood.
That’s very cool Linda! My former house had azaleas and hydrangea that gave me endless pleasure.
I tried to create my own patch of daffy sunshine when we first moved here. The gophers had other ideas. I thought surely daffodils, as toxic as they are, would be safe from the little devils but nooo. I’ll have to be content with roadside sightings.
Hi Ricki, it is unusual for daffodils to be eaten. So sorry. it’s really hard sometimes to get the critters to understand our needs.
That’s a beautiful poem. In addition to being cheerful, Daffodils have staying power.
Thanks Jason. Yes, daffodils are very reliable and satisfying.
A beautiful post, Susie, which shows how talented you both are. What a great poem and daffodils, alas, what’s not to love about them! They always bring back happy memories for when we lived in Ireland our land was full of them and the lambs were frolocking among them, what a sight! I’m trying to imitate that effect here and have lots already but there are some gaps –I don’t know why as mice don’t eat them– which will be filled this autumn with reliable varieties. You can always rely on Tête-à-tête! In spring I buy pots in flower and plant them out afterwards. Happy spring days 🙂