MY FAVOURITE GARDEN FLOWERS

I arrived at the letter D and found it difficult to choose between dahlia, daisy, daffodil or delphinium.  I have never grown dahlias although I think they are beautiful; there are daisies gracing our garden right now in various delightful colours; I love the colour of delphiniums but I think out of the four I will have to choose daffodils.   As we know one of our favourite blogging friends grows dozens of them every year and share their beauty with us and we always enjoy them so much.

Of course daffodils belong to the Narcissus genus which in turn belongs to the Amaryllidaceae (amaryllis) family.  Included are daffodil, daffadowndilly, narcissus and jonquil are the better known members of the genus.

The flowers are generally white or yellow (orange or pink in garden varieties) with either uniform or contrasting coloured tepals and corona.

Narcissus were well known in ancient civilisation, both medically and botanically.  The genus is considered to have about 10 sections with approximately 50 species.  The genus arose some time in the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene epochs, in the Iberian Peninsula and adjacent areas of southwest Europe.

 The exact origin of the name Narcissus is unknown, but it is often linked to a Greek word for intoxicated (narcotic) and the myth of the youth of that name who fell in love with his own reflection.  The English word 'daffodil' appears to be derived from "Asphodel" which which it was commonly compared.

Never do I think of daffodils but that beautiful poem by William Wordsworth comes to mind.  I am sure we all learned it at school but let me refresh your memories:

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 outdid the sparking waves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay, in such a 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.

So much beauty in the words describing the beauty of the daffodil.