My little gardener has been digging away for a decade without a break. Rain or shine, cold or hot she's always on the job. This is her favorite time of year, when she's surrounded by daffodils. Still, she doesn't look up; her pretty face remains mysteriously dark in the shadows. Oddly, these daffodils look down modestly as well.
So, here's the thing. My husband says the flowers are jonquils. I googled them and am still not sure. Some people say jonquil is the term used in the south for daffodils. Others say the difference is in the leaf - broader flat leaves are daffodils and rush-like leaves are jonquils. Still others say that jonquils have to be yellow and must have an aroma. These have no scent. The whole botanical family is Narcissus which besides being hard to spell, I thought was a term reserved only for those bright blue flowers.
Looking further, I found this list of names (from "The Genus Narcissus" edited by Gordon R. Hanks) for daffodils used in the British Isles and some from France:
The popularity of the daffodil in the British Isles is attested by the large number of common names used in various parts of the country Dony et al., 1986; Grigson, 1996; Grieve, 1998). These include:
Popular name Place
Affodil, Affrodil Cheshire
Bell-Flowers Dorset and Somerset
Bell-Rose Somerset
Butter and Eggs Devon, Somerset and Northampton
Churn Lancashire
Cowslip Devon
Cuckoo-Rose Devon and Somerset
Daffodil England, Scotland, Ireland
Daffydowndilly Somerset
Daffy-down-dilly Somerset
Daffydilly Northamptonshire
Dillydaffs Somerset
Easter Lily Devon and Somerset
Easter Rose Somerset
Fairy Bells Dorset
False Narcissus Devon
Fleur de Coucou Devon
Garden Narcissus Devon
Giggary Devon
Gylfinog Wales
Gold Bells Wiltshire
Golden Trumpets Somerset
Gooseflop Somerset
Goose-Leek Isle of Man
Gracie Daisies Devon and Somerset
Gracie Day Devon
Hen and Chickens Devon
Hoop Petticoats Dorset
Jonquil Hertfordshire
Julians Hertfordshire
King's Spear Somerset
Lady's Ruffles Wiltshire
Lent-Cocks Devon and Somerset
Lent Pitchers Devon and Somerset
Lent-Rosen Devon and Somerset
Lents Cornwall, Devon, Lancashire
Lenty Cups Somerset
Lent Lily Cornwall
Lily Scotland
Narcissus Norfolk
Porillon Norfolk
Queen Anne's Flowers Norfolk
St Peter's Bell Wales
Sun-Sonnets Somerset
Whit Sunday Devon
Wild Daffodil Yorkshire
Wild Jonquil Yorkshire
Yellow Maidens Somerset
Fleur d'asphodèle France
Pauvres filles de Sainte Claire France
I kind of like the French one "Pauvre filles de Sainte Claire" which translates to "poor girls of Saint Claire". St. Clare, oddly enough, is the patron saint of Television....it's a long story. But I could say that my daffodils, my poor girls of St. Claire, are bowing their heads in shame and embarrassment for the deteriorated state of the medium at the moment. Or they could simply be modesty flowers, bowing in synch with my little girl.
I'm going to call them either gooseflops or len-cocks from now on.
ReplyDeleteI love your Pauvre fille.
Barbara
And the British poets seem to love daffodils too.
ReplyDeleteDaffodils" (1804)
I WANDER'D 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 stretch'd 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.
By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
Nancy
I hear jonquils and I can't help but think of the play The Glass Menagerie. Was it Laura?
ReplyDeleteVery funny and nice post!
ReplyDeleteNarcissus joquilla is just one among the many hybrids of Narcissus. You can enjoy this query page with your husband :)