And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with daffodils
~William Wordsworth~
For the last couple of years, I've purchased a hundred daffodil bulbs and planted them in the orchard. The cost is minimal, about the price of a single bouquet, if you buy them at a big box store. My plan is to eventually have the entire back fourty covered in golden blooms. It does indeed fill my heart with pleasure. All the instructions on naturalizing daffodils say to toss the bulbs in the air and then plant them. It don't think my wrist could hold up to that much digging! I just dig a trench and plant them there, in a half circle around the ancient mound that has sprung a sumac.
Dear Jane,
ReplyDeleteThe daffodils are beautiful! I love that poem by Wordsworth; he had such a gift for painting word "pictures." How fun it will be to see your whole place covered in a few years!
Love,
Marqueta
Marqueta, I can imagine your jolly little family dancing around the daffodils!
ReplyDeleteHi Jane! What a great idea! At one hundred a year they will really start to add up and your field is going to be so special and breath-taking. Sometimes when I am driving along the back roads, I will come across homes and farms with mountainous azaleas and hydrangeas, tall pecan orchards, exquisite ornamental pear trees loaded with white blossoms and gardenia bushes with ivory flowers the size of a farmer's hand...
ReplyDeleteI am always so happy and thankful for those who take the time out of their busy day to day lives, to plant or create something for the sheer beauty of it! I also love the quote you chose, it is one of my favorites. I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow. Delisa :)
Good morning Delisa! One of the farmers just outside of the village limits, planted an entire field of wildflowers a few years ago. It looked like something out of the wonderful Land of Oz. Lots of poppies. But now that prices have risen, he's back to planting a regular crop.
ReplyDeleteI like your plan, Jane!!
ReplyDeleteLast year Jim planted me a bag of "big box store" daffodils and they have been so pretty this spring. I told Jim he would have to add another bag this fall and grow our little patch of spring.
I love how the blooms last so long!
Happy Spring!!
Sandy, somehow I got the mailing list for commercial gardeners. They have a deal; 1000 mixed bulbs for $150. I think I'm going to send for it. That ought to help my field of daffodils along. So if you don't hear from me this fall, you'll know why. I'll be out in the back planting daffodils!
ReplyDeleteReminds of an old Grace Livingston Hill book called "April Gold"; the mother of a family that fell in dire straits had to move to a plain little house in a poor neighborhood, and her son dug up a lot of her bulbs and planted them at the new place, so that they would come up in the spring and help her to feel more at home. The poor neighbors heard her talking about her "April Gold" and thought they had secretly buried real gold in their yard!
ReplyDeleteLove your "gold", I need to plant some for myself this fall!
I'll have to check that book out Charlene. It sounds like the perfect thing to read this time of year. You won't regret planting some bulbs. They give me so much pleasure. You simply cannot be down in the dumps when you spy them out the window!
ReplyDeleteSo lovely! What is it about how they dance in the sunlight that makes one's heart sing?? Lovely!
ReplyDeletehi jane
ReplyDeleteyour daffodils looks great.....
lovely poem!!!
happy mother's day!
blessings regina
Matty those daffodils bring their own sunshine. They are my favorite flower. My favorite is whatever is in bloom at the moment.
ReplyDeleteDanke Regina! Hope you have a lovely Mother's Day. Do they celebrate it in Germany?
Now that would be a lovely sight. Always enjoyed the daffodil poem by Wordsworth... Memorized the complete piece one year after a visit to his territory in Grasmere, England. A beautiful poem, a beautiful place to visit!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to visit England Brenda. It must have been a wonderful trip. My husband is probably glad I never had a chance to go, as I'd bankrupt us buying antiques. English transferware and lustreware are my favorites. Waiting for them to invent a time machine so I can travel the four corners of the Earth and be able to sleep in my own bed at night.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh... that would be a sight to behold. I've always loved that daffodil poem of Wordsworth. A girlfriend and I memorized it one summer after we'd visited Grasmere.
ReplyDeleteI think we share some kindred spirit... you think?