A Brief History of Daffodils
© Pictures by Sandra Stewart
As Scott pointed out, since the human came out of his cave after the stone age, man has cared for and maintained gardens, even in the most hostile growing environments. There have been digs that have found ruminants of ancient gardens built by people that have disappeared from this earth, some of these in very dry areas were water was a scare resources. In hostile climates, the garden was closely tied to the survival of ealy man. The oldest references to gardens include the "Garden of Eden" from the Bible, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Obviously, the history of gardens and man share a common thread.
The garden daffodil's ancestors come from the states around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Spain and Portugal, and the Middle East, such as Turkey. It has been spread about by man every since it was first discovered. The earliest record that I would find mentioned daffodils two or three hundred years BC. The first writing about daffodils was Mohammed somewhere about the 6th century AD.
The Birth of Daffodils as a Garden Plant
Between Mohammed and the 16th Centry, daffodils were relegated to the wild and were essentially forgotten. However, around or about 1629 a group of Englishmen took the daffodil out of the weeds and put it into the garden. Daffodils were in favor again. However, early English gardens contained mostly herbs, including roses, vegetables, and flowering bulbs. Hyacinths, and peonies were popular in those gardens, but became less important with the introduction of the Tulip. At one period in history there were hundreds of varieties of Hyacinths, but today there are hardly ten that still survive in any one country.
Early American Daffodils
During the days of the American experience and the expansion west, daffodils were well established as a "must have" in the garden. Many a variety of daffodil traveled across American in a covered wagon, bringing beauty in the spring to our pioneer forefather's frontier gardens.
An interesting aspect of the daffodils in the pioneer's gardens was that most daffodils were species Narcissus. In my own forefather's gardens in Arkansas (the old ancestral homestead), I found the 'Tenby' daffodil, N. Obvallaris, N. Psuedonarcissus, N. jonquilla, N medetious 'Twin Sisters', and N. poeticus recurvas "Pheasant's Eye', in addition to 'Von Sion', 'Butter and Egg', and a smattering of natural hybrid jonquil crosses many of which has streaks of red in the cup.
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