My lenten roses have been blooming for several weeks and now daffodils and crocus are putting on a show.
I planted crocus bulbs last fall. I should have grouped more of them together to make a bigger impact, but hopefully they will spread in the years to come. There’s a yellow one here and there but most of the mixed bag I bought appear to be purple.
I have several varieties of daffodils. The early ones are blooming now, but I have several more flushes to look forward to as the others bloom.
Granny called the early ones jonquils. A few days ago a commenter said their mother called them Johnny Quills.
A few other names I’ve heard folks use for the flower are March lily, March flower, Easter lily, Easter flower, and buttercup. Whatever you call them they are a cheery sign of spring of the year.
I love the ones growing in my yard, but I also love the ones I see at old homeplaces as I go about my way to and fro through Brasstown and beyond.
I wonder if someday people will see my daffodils and think about the lady who planted them.
“On we went, her red coat flitting in and out of the trees ahead of me. Sometimes she seemed not even to touch the ground. We came into the clear and struck out along a fencerow surprising the little birds that flew up all around us. We passed that pile of rocks which used to be the chimney of an old homestead, we know because daffodils pop up there every spring. Fannie said, ‘Daffodils remember when the people are all gone.’”
~Lee Smith, On Agate Hill
Last night’s video: Celebrating Granny’s Birthday.
Tipper
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I love that quote from Lee Smith.
A nice thing about daffodils is that deer do not like them!
My Mama called them Daffy Dillies sometimes. Mine are all up and some have bloomed; they are all solid yellow. I also have a purple Hyacinth blooming. I loved watching you and Katie picking flowers. TY for sharing Grannies Birthday with us.
Beautiful! We call them March flags, March flowers, buttercup, or daffodils. I would love to see your Lenten Roses. We are getting shipments in at the nursery now and the Hellebores ‘Lenten Rose’ are so beautiful! All the trucks coming in with all these beautiful plants makes me crazy for warmer weather. It was almost 80 yesterday and now it’s plummeting. Snow in the forecast. The daffodil saying makes me smile and sad at the same time. When we go down home in the spring daffodils are everywhere where my momma lived. Truth be she probably planted a lot of them.
I love seeing the signs of daffodils ( we call them buttercups too) coming up! I have beautiful purple crocus just like you! Spring is in the air and I love it. My Momma plants a lot of the daffodils and crocus that are in my yard ( I live at my home place) and they bring joy to my heart each year. She has been gone for a number of years now, but she is with me always.
“Daffodils remember when the people are all gone” brought a smile. My mama planted them, and they were a favorite, when I’d stay with my parents, to cut and take to the office for which I worked in their city (corporate HQ). They moved, and my brother bought their house and lived there for several years until he married, and moved with his bride, and every time I’d go by, the daffodils still would bloom well in the spring. I like to think that the folks who bought the house from him get to see the daffodils and think, “wonder who planted them? Wonder how long they have been blooming.” Mama also called some of them jonquils, like Granny.
Dear Tipper,
Here in the Blue Ridge our daffodils are like yours just starting to appear. I don’t have good luck with Crocus because we usually have a cold March and as you know they struggle in cold weather.
My folks always called them Easters. We have a bank not far from our house that the owners over the
years have planted daffodils on it. It has grown into a lovely collection over the past 100 years. The original planters are dead and gone but they beautiful flowers are still there to remain as spring harbingers. It is such a neat legacy. Take care, Kathy Patterson
I’ve heard both daffodils and jonquils as names for early blooming bulbs and thought they were different plants. I did a search and learned that daffodils refers to a broad family that includes jonquils. So in a broad sense, all jonquils are daffodils, but not all daffodils are jonquils.
I wonder if my ancient brain will remember that.
Sweet Spring gifts !!!
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, the poem written by William Wordsworth, is about daffodils, and my mother had learned it in high school. She could recite the entire poem when she was up into her 90’s. She passed 8 years ago, but I can still remember her precious voice saying the words every Spring when her lovely daffodils bloomed.
Jammie- I looked up the poem your mother recited, and it is a lovely one indeed. Thank you.
My family in NWNC has always called them jonquils. They are a bright and happy welcome to spring.
I grew up hearing my family here in NWNC call them jonquils too. I do hear some folks around the area calling them buttercups.We have them blooming all over our property. They are such bright and happy flowers and welcome spring every year.
Your daffodils and crocuses are beautiful. I had planted daffodils, crocuses, tiger lilies and tulips, but sadly between my husband not paying attention when he mowed and deer eating them they don’t even try to come up anymore.
I love what Fannie said “ Daffodils remember when the people are all gone.’” I’m hoping one day, maybe, just maybe a few of mine will return and have a chance to bloom again.
I looked at my spring flower area yesterday and I saw some green shooting through. I have irises and naked ladies shooting up. We have had temps in the 70’s for a couple days. Today we have about an inch of snow. Predicted for 50 degrees today so it won’t last. Need the moisture so I am not complaining.
I planted over 100 bulbs of crocus in my lawn, thinking how beautiful it’d look come early spring, before lawnmowing started. The first spring, maybe half popped through, each year after, less and less. Now, I’m lucky if 5 show their heads! I think either mice or squirrels have eaten the bulbs.
I grew up surrounded by flowers wherever a floral garden could be planted, including flowering bushes, never mind what is called ‘house plants’ – a jungle indoor and out. 🙂 One of my favorite memories is of lying in bed and the scent of honeysuckle and lilacs wafting in through the open window – they still remain my favorite flower. Daffodils were among the abundance of beauty – we called them ‘daffys.’ Katie made some beautiful arrangements for Granny’s birthday gathering – and the large bouquet sent to you in her memory was absolutely gorgeous! My husband was always bringing me small bouquets, special occasions of not. Now the only plant I have is the one he had – a cactus, which finally bloomed again this past month after not blooming since he died 7 years ago. I am so thrilled!!
The Easter flowers have been blooming for several weeks across the lane at the old college. They have never bloomed this early, and it’s not because the weather has been warmer. It’s already a sunshiny 72 degrees this morning, that’s unwelcome fuel for the severe weather we expect.
The big, fat yellow daffodils have always been my favorite spring flower.
The daffodils down here in Lucedale MS are about bloomed out and done putting on their show for this year. My paternal grandmother loved her flowers. She passed in 1964, but I can remember her so clearly as if it were just yesterday. She had two different varieties; the big yellow ones she called daffodils; the other was just like the big ones, but blooms were only about the size of a quarter, which she called jonquils. All of your flowers are so lovely!!
It always gives me such a cheerful feeling to see all of the first flowers blooming, letting us know Spring is beginning to make its grand appearance. Tipper, that purple crocus is just beautiful!
Daffodils remember…
About ten years ago I traveled to see my where my father’s old homeplace once stood near Mountain Grove, Missouri. It was a log cabin which is completely gone now. He was born in 1932 in that cabin. There are iris and daffodils growing all around the old homeplace that my grandmother planted all those years ago. I dug some up and brought them to my place and planted them. I don’t live there anymore but I wonder who is looking at them this spring and wondering who planted these beautiful bulbs.
Hi Tipper here in Ct we call the yellow white flower Easter daffodils!
We have them come up around an old well and where an old house place in field behind us.They remember who lived here!
My sweet little bungalow turned 100 this year. She’s nothing fancy but I love her with all my heart. I’ve lived here for 33 years and the past 25 by myself (except for 2 of my 3 grandkids staying with me for a couple of years/4 months). We moved in in the fall of ’93 so there weren’t many flowers evident but ohhhhh the following spring!!! My home was built on the sight of a previous large brick “mansion” and there were pockets of yesteryear just waiting to delight me! It was my introduction to surprise lilies. I’ve done my best to nurture the heirlooms left to my care and I have added so many new varieties…most through cuttings and seeds shared from friends and the occasional clearance bin. I loved watching you and Katie gather the beautiful flowers for Granny’s birthday celebration ♡
The daffodils you picked for the tables were beautiful! Katie did a great job arranging them.
The snow is finally melting here in N.H., yay!! pretty soon we will see our Spring blooms.
My heart hurts and smiles at the same time when I see daffodils in bloom where I know that those flowers and maybe brick or stone mark a place that some family once called home.
Many times when I pass daffodils and no homestead visible, I think about the woman who used to live there where nothing now stands. It’s a strange silent testimony to a life once lived and beautiful things to look at and enjoy while one went about their busy days. We planted 2 sky pencils and 4 English boxwoods yesterday in the front yard off the porch. When I got up this morning Murr commented on how nice they looked. I love daffodils and tulips and especially crocus (most all I’ve ever seen are purple and white.) The lady that lived here had orange lillies, but Ive got to be honest, I’m not into bulbs of any type and won’t ever be planting any. They just don’t do it for me. I love them, but I recall somebody gave me tulip bulbs and I got so frustrated because I think they rotted or something in the box. That was it-they got curb kicked. Anyway, I need a chicken house so I can get some chickens. I always have wanted my own eggs and TICK eaters. I need my garden fence put up. Oh well, it will get done or not. Have a great day and enjoy the daffodils. It will kill them all come the next few days just like all the fruit trees etc starting to bloom! I’d like to be the weather disher outer for a year… you’d see some interesting stuff pop up all over the world!!!
My mom had jonquils lining the whole backyard when I was living at home. I have narcissus’s which look just like jonquils except for their little flute or cup doesn’t stick out as far. Still beautiful though.
I traveled last week to Virginia. I wmet to Mt. Vernon and saw some pretty croucus blooming. My mom had Iris and daffodils. I will ask my sisters, who live in the house I grew up in if they still bloom. I know they have a tea rose that my grandmother gave to my mom. God bless all.
Just love all your flowers Tipper,reminds me of my late Nana Sue!Just lovely!
We called them Easter “flahrs” (flowers) when I was a child. My mother also called them jonquils. I never heard “daffodils_ except in poems. I always loved seeing them growing in abandoned old home places when we went on searches for old cemeteries when my mama did genealogy research.
Your daffodils looked beautiful on the tables at Granny’s party. I have a few coming up beside an old tree stump, but it will probably be a while before they bloom here. It will be before Easter I am sure. I really enjoyed your video last evening. I am watching the one where Katie made you dinner before Christmas right now. Enjoy your day everyone!
I told my wife this morning when I saw your post that you would love Gibb’s Garden at Ball Ground, GA. They have acres of Johnny Quills to begin the flowering season. I’m leaving a legacy here of plantings, though no-one will know in time to come. I inherited some myself I know but I don’t know which ones. Several of my plantings are in the stump holes of trees that died. Some of my plantings have proven to be mistakes; too close together, gets too big for its spot, etc. Ah well, goes with the territory. Glad you have some smiling flower faces to cheer you up.
I love this time of the year when spring starts to appear. The daffodils, jonquils, hyacinths, and forsynthias have bloomed and soon the red bud trees will too. There are also some trees which have white blooms. I don’t know their name but they usually bloom first and you see them out in the fields and along the highways. My husband said he saw a tulip tree blooming yesterday. If you travel on route 81 in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia you see a lot of old homesteads with broken down chimneys and daffodils blooming beside them. A reminder that people once lived here.
I love the Spring blooms, especially the Crocus. It’s a special surprise to see them pop up suddenly!
Have a lovely day
Daffodils are my Daddy’s favorite flower. He’s a March baby too. We always say Johnny Quills too. I love them, I wish they bloomed longer.
My grandma, my mom, my aunts, and myself all call them jonquils … while there are several old home places where they still grow the main thing it seems people here where I grew up in Oklahoma planted many years ago were irises. When I was still able to drive you could find me every year driving the dirt roads looking for irises that had so multiplied they made it outside of the home place out into the ditch or near the ditch and when I found them not on private property I would get the shovel out of my trunk and dig enough for me and to share with others always being careful to leave enough to grow and spread for next years ‘flower hunt’.
I live on the old home place and see and have flowers come up each year that were planted or set out by my mother and grandmother. One of the first flowers I look for each spring is to see if grandmother’s peony will come back up. I wonder how old it is, I only know it has been there as long as I can remember. I sorta grin when I see it and think of my grandmother and her telling me when I was a very young boy “if you mess with the blooms on my peony I will tear you (backside) up.” She never whipped me but she might have if I bothered her flowers! Both my mother and grandmother loved their flowers. Many of us write about our memories of the past, this is just another memory of two ladies I dearly loved.