Daffodils, the first harbingers of spring, seem to have arrived earlier this year…I’m guessing it must have been our mild winter. And how welcome they are (due in part to the fact that everything surrounding them is still brown)! With their bright yellow visage and perky stance, one can never seem to have enough of these beauties. Blessedly, they naturalize on their own (making them the only “invasives” that we gardeners would permit). 
Treasuring them as I do, I have started a little tradition…photographing daffodils in different settings around our gorgeous island​ while capturing​ ​some of its singular architecture.​ In the feature image (above), Ochre Point, designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Louis XIII-style , shares its courtly details with a sweeping carpet of daffodils.

One of Bellevue Avenue’s landmarks…a majestic clock, set off by a skirt of daffs.

Parterre’s dovecote at the corner of the main garden inside our gates has a bird’s eye view looking across the park-like lawn.

And other singular architecture captures the diversity of buildings for which the Newport community is known.

Brilliant chevrons of daffodils march up a street as if in celebration of the recent removal of unsightly electrical lines.

​One of my favorite images of all times…the Parterre Bench​ acting as the centerpiece amongst the swaying daffodils, along ​a​ burbling brook. 

And if you’re curious about this beloved spring flower, here are some colorful facts…

---

Colorful fact #1 “Daffs”(like their cousins, paper-whites) can be forced indoors to bloom in January. In the Asian culture,  it’s believed that good luck will come to your household if these golden beauties are forced into bloom during the Chinese New Year! (Click here for more.)

Colorful fact #2: Their botanic name is narcissus, daffodils are sometimes called jonquils, and in England, because of their long association with Lent, they’re known as the “Lent Lily.”

Colorful fact #3: Unlike most other flower bulbs, squirrels and other pests don’t eat daffodil bulbs because of poisonous crystals in the bulbs and leaves (but don’t plant where dogs like to dig).

Colorful fact #4: Daffodils are best kept in their own arrangement, as they  contain a toxic sap which is harmful to other flowers.

Colorful fact #5: Once the flowers have finished blooming, let the leaves yellow (so the plant can rebuild its bulb) before cutting them down….and they’ll continue dividing on their own, year after year.

---