The Dalesend Cottages guide to daffodils – because you’ll meet them here.
The daffodils at Thorp Perrow Arboretum – a superior display
Dalesend Cottages is the place to see a variety of Daffodils, thanks to Charles’ parents who planted the bulbs along the drive to Patrick Brompton Hall and the stable block. I’m not keen on them myself (read no 4 down this list for why.)
From March until late April/early May, the show of yellow and orange colour is magnificent, and providing daily bunches of cheery sunshine for the kitchen table. Below are some facts about daffodils I didn’t know, until I researched them!
- Daffodils are the national flower of Wales. English folk sometimes describe them as Lenten Lilies – a rather nice touch. They are also the flower for March –and they also represent HOPE. I’m hoping for a bunch of daffodils from Charles.
- If you present daffodils as a gift to someone, you are demonstrating your desire for them to be happy. Ah, now I know why we choose Daffodils in season to leave as a welcome in Dalesend Cottages. Now I know why Charles picks them for me.
- Daffodils are the official 10th wedding anniversary flower – yes I did get a bunch from Charles, but that anniversary was many years ago. Daffodils should only ever be presented in a bunch – if you give just one, you are giving bad luck – eeks!
I’ve still got the blue bucket after all these years.
- You shouldn’t mow over daffodils until the leaves are yellow and they have thoroughly died off because whilst doing this, they are renewing their bulbs. This means they’ll return the next year in abundance. BUT, this makes the drive here look unkempt and scruffy for a few weeks, and makes me so cross!
Never-ending happy flowers – free to pick – for weeks, yay!
- The poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth is reputed to be the most famous poem in the English language compelling me to print a copy for this daffodil blog. On rereading it (I learnt it by heart at school, but that was many years ago too) I am struck by how much the descriptions of the location match our own daffodils here.
For example: ‘Beside the lake, beneath the trees’ and ‘they stretched in never-ending line’ are the exact description of how they adorn the Dalesend Cottage drive!
Daffodils by William Wordsworth
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 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.
Composed 1804