Fresh Spring narcissus bouquets are not unusual for February through April, but a DRIED narcissus bouquet was a first at my house in early February this year.
The blossoms not only dried, but they also retained their delicate yellow colors.
D R I E D N A R C I S S U S
S P R I N G B O U Q U E T
My early narcissus bloomed the first week of February on the southern-facing slope in the backyard. At their peak, they were beautiful rays of sunshine in the Winter garden when all else lay dormant around them.
When the weather forecast predicted a hard freeze in the 20s at night during the narcissus' glorious show, we cut all the blossoms for an indoor bouquet in my bedroom.
The fresh bouquet was lovely for about a week, saved from the ravages of freezing, rainy outdoor weather. Their delicate scent filled the bedroom. Slowly, the flowers began to dry out over the next week, but not wilt and turn brown.
To my amazement, the dried flowers are still beautiful and now sit on the breakfast table in the sunspace.
The March issue of Country Living | UK magazine lies open beneath the bouquet to a double-page spread of photographs of the Heralds of Spring project in Great Britain. Volunteers are gathering information of the rare daffodils that grow in the Tamar Valley. Dating back to the Thirties and Forties, market gardening supplied daffodils across England until the Second World War when the flower plots were replaced with Victory gardens of vegetables.
Discarded daffodil bulbs were thrown into the surrounding fields and naturalized throughout the woods, fields, and ditches. Today, volunteers in the Heralds of Spring project are collecting information about the bulbs. Making notes, cataloging measurements, and taking photographs of each discovered species, the group hopes to someday revive the market gardens for rediscovered old varieties.
While my daffodils are not a rare variety, it is a rarity for them to dry.
Out the sunspace windows, bright green cool-weather rye grass is growing taller under the bare tree branches.
The daffodil petals are tissue thin, easily broken.
Bright, late-afternoon Winter sunlight shines through the translucent flower petals.
The drying process revealed veins in the blooms and once green stems. The trumpets are still ruffled with a deeper yellow than the outer petals.
Some stems are still green, but many stems have turned brown.
Outside, new daffodil buds have opened. Soon more fresh narcissus bouquets will appear inside, but the marvel of a dried narcissus Spring bouquet will remain on the breakfast table until the blooms have given their all.
Spring . . .
the wonders of nature never cease
Read more about daffodils/narcissus
