A daffodil. The flower, which, around here, marks the first of Spring.
We have plenty of daffodils all around our house. They are bright and cheery, at first. But now, they look as if they are tired. Like, they’ve done their job for the year, being on that welcoming committee, and now they are ready for another year of rest.
Yesterday morning, while out on our walk, we saw a bundle of them in the middle of the woods. Everything around them was still full of dead. The leaves were mucky and brown, fallen branches everywhere, gray and abandoned. But there, in the center, was a band of bright little cheerleaders, all waving their white pedals and golden centers. Smiling, as if.
Many of my “flower” friends already know this, but daffodils are also known as ‘Narcissus’ and belong to the Amaryllis family. They grow from bulbs, which is completely amazing to me.
And just like so many other things in life, there is more than one kind. In fact, there are over 13,000 different varieties of Daffodils. Those “varieties” are divided down into approximately 12 different types. This is all categorized by the size and shape of their petals and corona.
Let me take a moment and say this. I love nature. Plants, trees, flowers. But in general, I am miserable at identifying those cuties. I rarely remember their names. Mostly because when I want to learn about something, I want the whole shebang. From the bottom up. So here I am today, and I write about daffodils. The reference made in my research tells me something about their “corona.” So, I find this curious. I don’t know what the corona is, and I want to understand. I look up the definition. Especially since we are in the midst of the “corona” virus. I wonder if there is some correlation between the two uses of this word.
Low. And. Behold. There is no word in Webster’s for “corona.” So now I find I must turn to the internet to find out about “corona” — “the flower part.” And this is what I learned:
The corona is a flower component in certain types of plants, from the Passion Flower and Lilly families, for example. The corona is a set of adaxial appendages growing from the corolla, or the outer edge of stamens. Also known as the paraperigonium, paraperigon and paracorolla. The corona is located on the perianth of a flower. This is one of the non-reproductive parts of the flower. The perianth is composed of the petal, sepal, calyx and corolla.
Do you see now why I don’t learn about flowers?
Anyway, back to the friggin’ daffodils.
I was talking about how daffodils grow from bulbs. Here’s a thing. Daffodil bulbs are poisonous. They contain a substance called Lycorine. And this substance can make people and animals very sick.
So now, there’s another reason I steer clear of plants and flowers. I had a horrible case of poison ivy once. I see how all of this can go.
But the reason I brought this up in the first place was William Wordsworth. It was on this date, April 15, 1802, that William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were out walking and saw a “long belt” of daffodils. This inspired Henry to go home and write “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.”
And that brings me to inspiration. That magical moment when we are filled with an idea, a spark, a feeling, perhaps even a need to do something.
It can come in many different forms resulting in a million different outcomes. In Wordsworth’s case, it was daffodils that drove him to write a poem. In Gladys Necromb’s example, it was a terrible odor that caused her to sanitize the garbage disposal.
Whatever the circumstances may be, they are our own. We should look for them, and when the inspiration hits, we should follow our hearts and our magic. And see what springs up.
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“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
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“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent Willem van Gogh
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“And still, after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.”
― Hafiz
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Daffy. Dilly. And what lies beneath.
