Daffodils

Despite the fact that it is still coat weather here, there are signs of the inevitable reappearance of spring popping up. In general, I don't look forward to the coming of spring at all. For me, it is an all too brief buffer between winter and the dreaded heat of summer. And summer seems interminable as I wait for the relief of fall.

But there is one aspect of spring that I truly enjoy and that is the emergence of all the bulb flowers, especially the daffodils. Before I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I had a fairly limited experience of daffodils. A family that lived down the road from us had an entire front yard full of naturalized daffodils. Every spring, I would walk way out of my way just to look at them. They always made me smile. They seemed so cheerful and full of hope.

When I moved up here, once again I discovered a field of daffodils. This time I had access to the field and delighted in walking through it. There was also a bench nearby, so I could spend time just enjoying the yellow flowers swaying in the breeze.

Before I moved here I didn't realize that there was such a wide variety of daffodils. The first ones to come up are the tiny, miniature daffodils. At first, I wasn't at all certain that I liked these mini-flowers. After all, they were not "my" sort of daffodil and I felt a little shortchanged by them. But in time, I began to smile at these petite blooms, recognizing them as heralds of their larger relatives.

And I was surprised to see that the larger varieties had a wide range of variation as well. There were some that had a ruffled center piece. Others had a roundish, blob-ish, center. Some had orange centers. And still others were white with pink centers.

I must confess to disliking the pink and white ones. I guess I'm a bit of a daffodil purist. Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the color yellow, in my opinion, daffodils simply must be yellow. No exceptions. I have expanded my range to enjoying the various sizes and centers, but I draw the line at non-yellow daffodils.

I don't know why the daffodils attract me so much. Pansies, primroses or geraniums don't have any of the same appeal. I will admit to a fondness for tulips and lilies, too. I guess that I'm just a bulb girl at heart.

My ambition is to acquire a home with a big yard and to slowly establish my very own field of daffodils. Then, every spring, I could enjoy them to my heart's content. And perhaps, long after I'm gone, some little girl will walk past my field of daffodils and dream of a field of her own.