Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Daffodils vs Jonquils

The question of what to call those yellow things that are starting to bloom now is a question that bothers some so I thought I would try to muddy the waters a little more.
Jonquils is a name that strictly applies to Narcissus jonquilla and a picture can be seen here. These have round leaves instead of the flat blades of the more common daffodils. Apparently these jonquils used to be more common but have now been replaced by daffodils. I have never seen any jonquils for sale (of course I have not looked everywhere) but I have seen them at old homesites. In fact there are some in my yard along with oodles of daffodils and paperwhites left in neat rows around what used to be the yard of the first house that was here. Jonquils are smaller than daffodils and intensely fragrant.
Many an old homesite is marked only by clumps of daffodils. They persist with no care, year after year. The house whose yard they graced, gone now, eaten by flames and fungi. Even the foundation rocks and chimneys are gone, pushed out of the way or confiscated for another purpose. Yet, each spring the daffodils push up through the fescue, through the kudzu, a bright remembrance of the lives that passed in joy and sorrow in this forgotten place.
And that is why I want you to plant daffodils in your yard. Plant them as a testament to the tenacity of life itself, and plant them as a remembrance of me.

1 comment:

  1. So what about buttercups?

    Buttercups is applied to either daffodils or jonquils, a name used primarily in the South.

    ReplyDelete

 
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