According to the american daffodil society there are between 40 and 200 different daffodil species, subspecies or varieties of species and more than 25,000 named hybrids. here, we share a small sampling of the beauty that daffodils offer.
Daffodils are easy to grow, and the cheery flowers bloom in warm and cold climates. If you have a sunny, well-drained place in your yard you can grow daffodils and reap the benefits from six weeks to six months, depending on your location and the cultivars you grow. Now is the time to choose the varieties you want for next year. Growers will ship the bulbs in September after you order and pay for bulbs in April, May or June. To find the varieties available, refer to bulb catalogs and websites and visit daffodil shows and local garden centers that feature them. For more information go to daffodilusa.org.
Lemon Surprise Cupcakes are topped with buttercream frosting piped into the shape of a delicate daffodil. These are almost too pretty to eat.
Make delightful daffodil petit fours from purchased petit fours—available in some grocers‘ freezer or bakery section—or by baking your own tiny cake bites from a favorite cake recipe or mix and drizzling them with thin icing. Pipe tiny petals and a trumpet shape in the center to create the flowers on top. Let them dry before serving.
The daffodil cake, sometimes called Easter dinner cake, is a sponge cake very similar in texture to angel food cake. The difference is that the white cake batter is divided and part of it is colored by the egg yolks (not used in angel food cakes) to make a beautiful yellow-white swirled fluted cake. (Find recipes for daffodil cake at Martha Stewart or The Daffodil Society—see Sources.) Here, we‘re introducing the Layered Daffodil Cake. It has three layers on the bottom section and one on the top. Each layer is a different shade of yellow or white. It‘s covered in fondant and delicate sugar flowers.
Brighten a Mother’s Day tea or a bridal or baby shower with a cheery display of fragrant daffodils. Small vases hold four varieties: top, ‘Dutch Master’; center left, Double ‘Dick Wilden’; center right, Narcissus ‘Erlicheer’; bottom, Narcissus ‘Paperwhite.’
One of the prettiest poems ever written is about daffodils.It was inspired by a journal entry of Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the famous poet William Wordsworth. The pair had taken a walk together on a stormy day and along the way came across an avenue of daffodils. The splash of happy color cut through the dreary day and left a memory neither forgot. God uses the elements of our world—His creation—to feed our spirit and inspire our creativity.
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.
—William Wordsworth, 1804
