"Pay attention to the world." -- Susan Sontag
 

Daffodils: A Gathering (4 of 4)

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From “Scents and Sensibilities” in Daffodil: Biography of a Flower by Helen O’Neill:

“Narcissus poeticus is an antique daffodil with an otherworldly beauty. It blooms late in spring, is believed by some to be the variety alluded to in ancient Greek legend, and displays a simple halo of pure white arching petals and a startlingly yellow scarlet-rimmed crown. My mother, like so many others, thinks of the Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus variety that grows in her garden as ‘Pheasant’s Eye’, and while poeticus may not be the daffodil that so inspired William Wordsworth it is imbued with a strange lyrical power.

“Sir Bernard Burke, the nineteenth-century genealogist who created Burke’s Peerage, realised this while investigating the enigma of the fallen house of Finderne for his 1860 book A Second Series of Vicissitudes of Families. Once a rich and powerful Derbyshire clan, the Findernes mysteriously vanished in the mists of the fifteenth century. The village, Finderne (now spelled ‘Findern’) still exists but when Burke explored it he could find no trace of the Finderne dynasty, so he accosted an elderly local for information.

“‘Findernes,’ repeated the old man, ‘We have no Findernes here but we have something that once belonged to them.’ He led Burke to a field containing traces of ancient ruins, and pointed to a bank of wild blooms. ‘They are the Findernes’ flowers, brought by Sir Geoffrey from the Holy Land,’ said the villager of the aristocrat’s campaign in the Crusades around eight centuries earlier, ‘and do what we will, they will never die.’

“These flowers are believed to have been Narcissus poeticus and their presence deeply affected the author. ‘For more than three hundred years the Findernes had been extinct, the mansion they dwelt in had crumbled into dust, the brass and marble intended to perpetuate the name had passed away,’ Burke wrote.

“‘A tiny flower had for ages preserved a name and a memory which the elaborate works of man’s hands had failed to rescue from oblivion. The moral of the incident is as beautiful as the poetry. We often talk of “the language of flowers” but of the eloquence of flowers [we] never had such a striking example.’”

From “Little Elegies: VI” by Rosemary Thomas in Selected Poems of Rosemary Thomas by Twayne Publishers, Inc.:

These are the flowers that we picked
a year ago:
poeticus spread perfume out
to say to you,
“Come, I will go
back to your city-room, and wake the view
of orchard beyond walls —
take me with you.”

Now everywhere
narcissus wakes
beyond the view —
on walls without all reckoning
a silent thing —
petal-less, pitiless perfume now,
this March, this spring.

Hello!

This is the fourth of four posts exploring four daffodil varieties that I photographed at Oakland Cemetery earlier this year. The first post about Narcissus pseudonarcissus is Daffodils: A Gathering (1 of 4); the second post about Narcissus × incomparabilis is Daffodils: A Gathering (2 of 4); and the third post about Narcissus tazetta is Daffodils: A Gathering (3 of 4).

In this post, I have photos of a small collection of Narcissus poeticus flowers featuring tiny white or light yellow cups or coronas, most etched with a reddish-orange edge color that — along with the shapes of their petals and the size and appearance of their leaves — helps confirm their identity. Like our previous daffodil friends, Narcissus poeticus is known by a long list of common names, including Findern Flower, Nargis, Pheasant’s Eye, Pheasant’s Eye Daffodil, Pheasant’s Eye Narcissus, Pinkster Lily, Poet’s Daffodil, and Poet’s Narcissus. Each of these has its own historical threads, but the one I found most interesting — in part because I hadn’t heard of it before — is Findern Flower. The village of Findern (originally Finderne or Fynderne) and the Findern Flower are partially described by Helen O’Neill in the excerpt at the top of the post, where O’Neill relies on genealogy research published by Sir Bernard Burke in A Second Series of Vicissitudes of Families in 1860 to recount the story or legend of the connections between a fifteenth-century family, their village, architecture and a landscape, and a flower.

Since a scanned version of that book was available on the Internet Archive, it was especially fun to confirm the details of O’Neill’s version of the story and read the original quotations contained in Burke’s description of his encounters at the village. While Burke doesn’t name or describe the flower, the connection to the mysteriously disappeared Finderne family and the town bearing their name appears to be intact: search the internet for Findern flower and you’ll find images clearly associating Narcissus poeticus with that name and history. And the Wikipedia article for the Findern village shows an image of the flower that certainly does appear to be N. poeticus, though a double form demonstrating the diminished corona and interleaved flower petals we discussed when I posted photos of white double Tazetta daffodils from Oakland.

Thanks for reading and taking a look!

Daffodils: A Gathering (3 of 4)

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From “Narcissi” in The Lore and Legends of Flowers by Robert L. Crowell, illustrated by Anne Ophelia Dowden:

“There are many strains of native narcissus, and their hybrid descendants have greatly swelled the number. To add to the confusion, there is confusion in the terms! The daffodil, the jonquil, and the narcissus are all kinds of narcissus and are within the meaning of the Latin term narcissi, but not everyone knows where one leaves off and the others begin. To add to the confusion, narcissus is a common name for one of the kinds of narcissus! For the sake of convenience, here are three very broad categories:

“(1) The daffodil or trumpet type — this includes Narcissus pseudo-narcissus and is recognized by its big central trumpet, which is like the mouthpiece of an old-fashioned telephone. It is the parent of almost all of our big-trumpet daffodils.

“(2) The jonquil, which is yellow but sports different hues of yellow from those of the daffodil. The jonquil has rushlike leaves, and the flowers are clustered on each stem.

“(3) The narcissus, which has white petals and sepals and a cup often edged with orange or red.

“Within these large categories the species and varieties are legion. The ‘common’ daffodil (Narcissus pseudo-narcissus), which delighted Wordsworth and which enlivens the window boxes of London each April, is found among trees and in thickets in many parts of northern Europe. The ‘hoop petticoat’ narcissus, with its crown flared out like the skirt of a ballet dancer, makes its home in southern France and Morocco. Narcissus tazetta, the most widely distributed of all, is especially partial to Eurasia and the Canary Islands. Narcissus jonquilla is native to southern Europe and Algeria. Indeed, the Iberian peninsula is a stronghold of many species that survive in the wild.”

From “A Daffodil Code” in Daffodil: Biography of a Flower by Helen O’Neill:

“To humans Narcissus tazetta has simply always been there. It has journeyed far from its original home in south-western Europe and gathered many names on the way, from Polyanthus Narcissus, Nosegay Daffodils, Paperwhites, Suisen (by the Japanese), Joss Flower to Chinese Sacred Lily in China, where it is considered auspicious.”

From “Early Spring (1860)” in Poems of John Clare’s Madness, edited by Geoffrey Grigson:

The spring is come, and spring flowers coming too,
The crocus, patty kay, the rich heartsease;
The polyanthus peeps with blebs of dew,
And daisy flowers; the buds swell on the trees;
While o’er the odd flowers swim grandfather bees.
In the old homestead rests the cottage cow;
The dogs sit on their haunches near the pale,
The least one to the stranger growls ‘bow-wow’,
Then hurries to the door and cocks his tail,
To gnaw the unfinished bone; the placid cow
Looks o’er the gate; the thresher’s lumping flail
Is all the noise the spring encounters now

Hello!

This is the third of four posts exploring four daffodil varieties that I photographed at Oakland Cemetery earlier this year. The first post about Narcissus pseudonarcissus is Daffodils: A Gathering (1 of 4); and the second post about Narcissus × incomparabilis is Daffodils: A Gathering (2 of 4).

This post has photos of Narcissus tazetta, a daffodil species with a long history going back to antiquity whose descendants often appear in Victorian gardens like Oakland, with a naturalization history that extends throughout many of the southeastern states in the United States. And as we discussed in the previous post, wild or genetically engineered pairings of Narcissus tazetta with Narcissus pseudonarcissus produce the Incomparable Daffodil, Narcissus × incomparabilis.

Across the two excerpts and the poem at the top of this post, you’ll see quite a few of Narcissus tazetta’s common names. There are others as well, and here’s a list — which may or may not be exhaustive — of the common names (alphabetical of course) that I came across while learning more about the tazettas:

Bunch-flowered Daffodil
Bunch-flowered Narcissus
Chinese Sacred Lily
Cream Narcissus
French Daffodil
Joss Flower
Nosegay Daffodils
Paperwhite
Polyanthus Daffodil
Polyanthus Narcissus
Paperwhites
Suisen

Some of these names reflect regional naming conventions, adapted to English, like French Daffodil and Suisen — an anglicized Japanese term that, used in an internet search, will take you to images of and articles about Narcissus tazetta. Chinese Sacred Lily and Joss flower have similar regional meanings but with an additional ceremonial connotation, as “joss” refers to Chinese religious objects. Paperwhite crosses floral boundaries, since it’s also a descriptive name for Amaryllis — especially forced Amaryllis that often occupy western homes around the Christmas holiday — and the visual similarity between the two probably led to the name’s cross-pollination, as well as the fact that their plant family Amaryllidaceae includes both Narcissus and Amaryllis. The remaining terms refer more closely to the plants’ botanical characteristics, especially Bunch-flowered, Nosegay, and Polyanthus — all of which describe the way the tazetta flowers often split off from a single stem and cluster together as if in a bouquet.

So what’s in a name? Many, many things — apparently!

Thanks for reading and taking a look!

Daffodils: A Gathering (2 of 4)

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From “When Daffodils Begin to Peer” in The Garden’s Story (1889) by George H. Ellwanger:

“Hybrids in the genus Narcissus are very readily made, and undoubtedly any species of the genus, under favorable conditions, will form a hybrid with any other species of it; and several of these kinds which are considered by botanists as species, seem to be hybrids; that is, they can be imitated by crossing two other species of the genus….

“The best-known instance of this is the so-called species Narcissus incomparabilis. A cross between N. pseudo-narcissus and N. poeticus produces in some instances a daffodil which can not be distinguished from this; but the same cross may also produce results varying in the degree of each parent they contain, varying in the color, size of trumpet, and other particulars. These varieties are found wild on European mountains at elevations where N. poeticus and N. pseudo-narcissus flower simultaneously with the melting of the snow….”

From “The Medium-Crown Hybrids: Narcissus incomparabilis” in Daffodils, Narcissus, and How to Grow Them by Arthur Martin Kirby: 

“This is one of the most important sections of the medium-crown group. The type, wild over a large area throughout Southwestern Europe, was long considered a species, but comparatively recent proofs including artificial crosses between N. Pseudo-Narcissus and N. poeticus which reproduced the identical plant and flower, have caused N. incomparabilis to be generally recognised as a natural hybrid. There are now many varieties — mostly garden crosses. The distinguishing characteristic is a cup-shaped crown, one-third to three-quarters the length of the petals.

“Practically all the varieties may be depended upon for any purpose; they make charming pot plants and are graceful and un-excelled as cut flowers, showy for beds and borders and most effective for naturalising. The richness of colouring in the cup varies according to season and conditions of soil and exposure.”

From “On a Morning in May” by W. J. Turner in Poems of Today: Fourth Series by The English Association:

The Lilac is in flower, blue and white;
Laburnum drops its canopy of gold;
In their green tents the Limes’ dark limbs and cold
A heady effervescence of leaf-light
Bare to the Sun. Like bathers now upright
After a plunge Poplars their arms afold
Shiver with joy. Willows their heads unpolled
Bend to the stream their nymph-like tresses bright.
The grass is thick with bluebells, here and there
By a Narcissus’ star a drake’s bronzed head
Lifts from his wing, his squatting harem’s pride;
Tulips in vivid camps spread everywhere
Their turban-coloured joy. Bees bubbling tread
In mazy flight the air’s blue mountain side.

Hello!

This is the second of four posts exploring four daffodil varieties that I photographed at Oakland Cemetery earlier this year. The first post is Daffodils: A Gathering (1 of 4).

In that first post, I showed the varieties in a four-image gallery as a preview of the photos in this series. Just below I’ve repeated part of that gallery, reducing it to these three: Narcissus pseudonarcissus (top left), Narcissus tazetta (top right), and Narcissus × incomparabilis — the subject of this post…

… to show their visual relationships because Narcissus × incomparabilis is a hybrid of the other two. Its status as a natural versus developed hybrid gets much attention in daffodil literature, leading finally to the conclusion that this hybrid occurs naturally — and in abundance — in Europe’s wild landscapes. That’s not to imply that the specimens I photographed here are such natural hybrids, but simply that Narcissus × incomparabilis can exist as a hybrid independent of human intervention. Narcissus × incomparabilis is commonly called the Incomparable Daffodil directly from its scientific name and the reverence attributed to it by its fans. It’s also referred to as Chalice Daffodil and Chalice Narcissus (reflecting religious cultural connotations), or — echoing its incomparable appearance and status — Nonesuch Daffodil, Peerless Daffodil, and Star Daffodil.

That the plant in the third photo (Narcissus × incomparabilis) is a hybrid of the other two (Narcissus pseudonarcissus and Narcissus tazetta) can lead us to some informative observations about their visual similarities and differences. Note how the corona in Narcissus × incomparabilis is similar in both shape and color to the corona of Narcissus pseudonarcissus in the first image. As you look through the rest of the galleries below, you can see the intensity of yellow in coronas varies from a light, pale yellow above to a more saturated version, an indication that Narcissus × incomparabilis inherited the yellow color but expresses it in varying intensities.

That the Narcissus × incomparabilis corona is short compared to Narcissus pseudonarcissus reflects traits it inherited from the plant in the second image, where Narcissus tazetta is shown to possess a much more compact corona. And you can also see how Narcissus tazetta has contributed to the shapes of Narcissus × incomparabilis flower petals, which have evolved as rounded petals like those of Narcissus tazetta rather than the more oblong, pointed petals of Narcissus pseudonarcissus. What is made visible by comparing three related plants and differentiating the appearance of their common structures becomes a genetic or scientific study in itself, and, in the case of these three daffodils, shows us how one plant has evolved to contain characteristics, sometimes modified but abstractly similar, of its two parents.

Thanks for reading and taking a look!