March 20, 2012 -- poor 'ole daffodils

This has not been a daffodil-friendly spring. They bloom, they look beautiful, and then the heat hits them so hard they wither quickly. It actually seems like an act of kindness to pick them and bring them into the cooler house, where they last longer. (I visited friends this afternoon who were having a garden-viewing party to "celebrate" all the flowers they had planted for Garden Week in Virginia, which were blooming three weeks early, and would NOT be blooming when the tour came through their yard. And another neighbor told me she had picked all her daffodils to give them to church friends, because she knew they wouldn't endure the heat outside.) Anyway, this is may daffodil tribute--lots of different varieties of daffodils lined up in a test-tube-like series of vessels. What makes this work (in addition to the vase) is clustering the daffodils according to variety and adding a little foliage. You're not supposed to cut daffodil foliage (because as long as it is growing it is gathering energy for next year's bulb), but this little bit won't hurt too much.