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| Photo courtesy of High Country Gardens |
Look around outside in March and April and you might see blooming daffodils. Daffodils are grown from bulbs planted in the fall. They are one of the earlier bulb flowers to bloom, and have a range of colors from deep gold to white and a variety of sizes to choose from. Daffodils are deer resistant and tend to naturalize, that is, divide on their own and expand their territory year after year.
A large swath of naturalized daffodils inspired William Wordsworth to write this poem in 1804:
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud By William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
I wandered 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;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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| Courtesy Pexels |
www.poetryfoundation.org
CSU Plant Talk Daffodils, Daffodil Care
