Daffodils

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On my way in to town, I drive by a south-facing bank where a hill had been cut back to make room for the highway. Just about this time of year, I start looking closely at the hillside as I drive by. Why? To see if the daffodils are blooming yet.

I suppose that when the highway was under construction, the daffodil bulbs were caught up in the action – moved by huge construction equipment and dumped with the soil. There was no hopeful, careful gardener to dig a hole the correct depth. No one to carefully space the bulbs just so far apart. No one lovingly covered them with good soil or fed them.

But they grew and bloomed and multiplied. They are generally the first daffodil blooms I see each spring. I admire not only their beauty, but their toughness and determination. They weren’t treated well. They were run over, dumped, abandoned and ignored…and yet, they persevered.

Certainly, those lovely butter yellow blooms are even more welcome after the dreary gray and brown winter we usually have around here. Not too much snow, just unrelieved gray skies, gray tree trunks; and brown, withered leaves.

Hope and Rebirth

My mother was a volunteer for the American Cancer Society for several years…I remember helping her sell daffodil bouquets as a fund raiser. The “Flower of Hope” – a perfect emblem for people fighting that horrible disease.

She eventually succumbed to cancer although she never admitted defeat. It was so difficult to watch her be so ill, become so frail, but still so beautiful. She was like the daffodils; she didn’t get a pampered start or have an easy life. She was tough, determined, worked hard, cooked from scratch, kept her house painfully clean, was a good wife and mother and she loved her flowers.

Like the daffodils, she created beauty where there was none. I’m sure she gave me my love of gardening and cooking. I learned so much from her and it’s taken me a good while to come to terms with her passing.

Maybe, just maybe…I am a daffodil, too.

Meet Dona Bergman

Dona Bergman is a founding member, Southwest Indiana Chapter of the Indiana Native Plant & Wildlife Society, and an Advanced Master Gardener.

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