Yaller Flars
March is a good month. Don’t you think? I love March. March and October, they’re the best. Although April has a strong claim, despite the cruelty thing. But March is special. I think it’s the daffodils. I have a really slightly insane passion for daffodils – especially the way they’re planted in the UK, in those great blankets covering whole sections of parks and gardens. We don’t do that here, unfortunately. No blankets. But there are a lot of them, just in smaller batches, so I trudge around the place gazing fondly at clumps of them next to trees and on parking strips. I took a trip to London in March about ten years ago and people laughed at me when I showed them my pictures. ‘They’re all of daffodils!’ everyone exclaimed, falling over laughing. ‘Every single one is of daffodils!’ I looked and was much abashed to see that it was true. Kew with daffodils, Hampton Court with daffodils, York with daffodils, Cambridge with daffodils, Kenwood with daffodils, Burleigh with daffodils. Very King Charles’s head, it was. I felt slightly silly. But I was pleased to have so many pretty pictures of daffodils, all the same!
Sure we have blankets of daffodils here, if you’re willing to go to the fields where they’re grown. Gorgeous.
No daffodils in England yet, alas. Too cold and dry. I blame global warming, but that’s another story…
Yes, true. The Skagit is indeed gorgeous. But it would be nice to have blankets right in the city the way they – er – used to in the UK.
Really, no daffodils there?!? That’s awful!
We have hundreds of daffodils getting ready to bloom in our rather small corner of northwest London. The heads are quite full but not showing signs of opening yet.
It’s a wonderful thing to look forward to. :)
Possibly the only good thing about the climate here is that it seem to cause the flowers to really take their time through all their most beautiful stages. And that seems to be true still, altnough we’ve had a lot more sun the past couple of years, especially this year it seems, than in the 10 or so years before.
Ah well, if they’re just late, I suppose that’s not so tragic. Somehow I thought – what did I think? I didn’t think.
Still – I do love the combination of bare trees and daffodils. I hope they don’t wait until May!
I once went from New England to London in late February, and was astonished to find Hyde Park thronged with daffodils. This early!! I thought, wondering. ‘Twas not so in New England.
Apropos daffs and global warming, in one of his programmes about the English landscape, Alan Tichmarsh stood amongst the daffs near Lake Windermere and quoted Wordsworth. He then pointed out that whilst he was standing there in early March, Wordsworth had written his poem after seeing the display in late April.
If you find yourself down by the Pike Place Market, do look up. You’ll see planter after planter of yellow daffodils blooming there along the edge of the market’s roof.
I helped plant some daffodil bulbs a few years back in our downtown park (Vacaville, California). They seem to be later or more weak this year-we did have a deluge on New Years Eve that maybe washed some of the bulbs away. I do love daffs, though :)
Clearly I’m not the only daff lover around here. A toast to the dear yellow flower. Floreat.
I am happy to report that the first daff in my garden opened today. Now, if it rains some time in the next week, the flower may last…
Hurrah! Give it my best wishes. Tell it to hang on.