Memory and Rebirth in Homewood, Alabama

Not too far away..., originally uploaded by Wren's Nest Cottage.

We wrote to the photographer, Cindy, to ask if we could post this January 23 2009 photo on our blog, and to find out the story behind the daffodils and the berries in the photo. Read on, for a timeless tale of connection and rebirth.

Thank you for asking, because these are such special daffodils!

25 years ago, my parents sold the house and land that were my childhood home near Birmingham, Alabama. They had built the house right after WWII, on land that been given to them by my mother's father. At the time the place was sold, I was a young twentysomething, busy with my life and my first apartment. I deeply loved the old home place, but didn't think as much about leaving some things behind as I did in later years.

When I bought my own house (Wren's Nest Cottage, Homewood, Alabama) in 1997, it really made me begin to think about what I had taken for granted about my old home. I remembered the drystone walls my father built, and my mother's lovely flowers and shrubs. So...a few years back, my sisters and I went back to the old place. The house had tumbled down, and the lawns and the hill behind the house had been completely reclaimed by the forest. Our goal was to secure some stones from the old walls to use in our gardens, but we found something else, equally wonderful - Mama's daffodils were blooming thick amongst the undergrowth. We dug up a bucketful, wondering if they'd survive being transplanted while in bloom. As you can see, they are thriving! And the red berries are from my mother's nandina bush. My sister pulled up a wee one almost as an afterthought while we were gathering the daffodil bulbs. It is now waist high and gives us many baby nandinas every year. And yes, we did get lots of lovely old stones for our gardens as well.

So please feel free to use my photo - I'm grateful to you for asking. It gave me a tear and a smile to remember. My parents have both passed on, but I have much love and beauty from their lives to fondly recall.

Birthday Daffodils in Bristol, UK

Daffodils, originally uploaded by toni_thorne.

We asked photographer Toni Thorne about these daffodils and this highly artistic photo. Says Toni: The photo was taken on January the 17th 2009 at my home in Bristol UK. The Daffodils are bulbs I planted last spring, which have re-shooted this year. The shoots first appeared at the end of December which I was really surprised about. They are growing in a window box on my tiny little balcony at the top of a 3 story block of flats. The balcony is South East facing, so I guess all the daytime sunshine has encouraged them along.

Daffodils are one of my favourite plants, my birthday is in the Spring and the first daffodils of the year really do make me feel positive about becoming another year older.

Early Daffodil in Doncaster, England (in a pot)

Early Daffodil, originally uploaded by Theresa Elvin.

This daffodil in the north of England appears to have a jump on spring. Well, as photographer Theresa Elvin explains: Daffodils do not usually bloom here until March, but this little flower was grown in a pot in a greenhouse, so it has arrived earlier.

This cheerful image was taken on January 18, 2009.

First Daffodil in Spartanburg, South Carolina

First Daffodil! 1.24.09, originally uploaded by Bill's_Eye_View.

This beauty was taken on January 24, 2009, by photographer William Smith. Here's what Bill has to say about the image: This is the first of what will be many later on. The daffodils come up in my backyard every year. They grow close to the edge of the woods. They were not planted by anyone. They may have been in a load of fill dirt, or squirrels may have stashed the bulbs there while storing food for the winter, like they do pecans and acorns.

Last week we had 3" of snow, and temps. in the teens. Today I walk out in my backyard and see this. Nature sure can be amazing!

Daffodil Bulb

Daffodil Bulb, originally uploaded by Vicky Tate.

Photographer Vicky Tate sends us information about this lush January 15, 2009 photo: This photo was taken in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in the middle of a a very cold week. I bought some bulbs to brighten up a window sill and remind me of spring.

Vicky also says this about planning for future seasons: If you keep watering the plants until flowers fade and the leaves wither, the bulbs can be planted in a sunny spot in your garden to bloom again next spring.

Early in San Jose, California

Just a few warm days is all that's needed, originally uploaded by JanH.
This image was taken in San Jose on January 12, 2009. Jan makes the following comment on her flickr page for this photo (and notes that they usually come up in February): I found these poking up in my front garden this morning-- daffodils! It's been a pretty cold winter so far, so I was surprised to see these! The past few days have been quite warm, so I think they're making a premature appearance.

Early Daffodils in Astoria, Oregon

Advent 365 - January 13, originally uploaded by Danger Amy.

Rose moved the pot from the window to the table. She didn’t want the little ones to get too much sun, and the exercise did them good. She looked at the shoots, one was opening early. If she was lucky, though, it could be saved. Coaxed back to sleep, if only for a week or so.

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The photographer DangerAmy tells us about this photo: The photo was taken in Astoria, Oregon on January 13th. It is in my coworker's office.

The words are not mine, they are my friend Harlequinade's, in Copenhagen, for a writing and photography project we are doing.

Here is Harelequinade's link: 365.litranaut.com

It takes a village in London

springing, originally uploaded by shimmer2.

The photographer shimmer2 writes to tell us about this image: The photo was taken in a garden in Thames Ditton, a village on the edge of the Green Belt upstream from London, and these are early flowering narcissi.

This photo was taken on January 13, 2009.

New and Cute in Birmingham, Alabama

Spring is coming..., originally uploaded by blathanna.

Photographer blathanna tells us: These daffodils were planted in November in Birmingham, Alabama. They are either Fortissimo or Gigantic Star, from Brent & Becky's Bulbs (www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com).

This image was taken on January 9, 2009.

First Shoots in Eyemouth, Scotland

First Shoots, originally uploaded by Gail Smith.

Artist and poet and photographer Gail Smith sends us these details and thoughts: The bulbs are in the back garden of my father's house which is in a small fishing town called Eyemouth on the south-east coast of Scotland. The soil looks a bit sandy, doesn't it? The photo was taken for the theme of 'New Beginnings'. The daffodil bulbs had lain on the top of the earth for a while following my digging the garden last summer! I replanted them some weeks ago. When I saw the green shoots appear I was fascinated by how something that had appeared 'dead' wasn't. It's amazing how they push up their green shoots through the dark earth.

This photo was taken on January 6, 2009.

Inside Looking Out in Standish, Maine

Daffodil, originally uploaded by sleepy pickle.

Another nice winter-spring composition from someone with a really cool brother. This photo was taken on January 5, 2009.

Photographer sleepy pickle sends along this note: I visited your blog, and I was amazed to see how many people have daffodils outside already! I live in Standish, Maine, so I am extremely jealous of anyone that has live plants outside this time of year.

As a garden junkie myself, I've been trying to pretend that it's not winter. My brother bought me these little potted daffodils to help get me through until my bulbs come up outside in the spring.

First Daffodils in Lawrenceville, Georgia

Jan 5th Daffodils , originally uploaded by griegatlanta.

More daffodils in the southern U.S. with the autumn leaves still looking pretty "fresh" on the ground. This image was taken on January 5, 2009.

Photographer Greg Wehr in Lawrenceville, Georgia tells us: The bed of daffodils is in my front yard and gets the majority portion of the daily sun. The daffodils are your normal yellow trumpet.

Spring is bustin' out in Columbus, Georgia

Daffodil, originally uploaded by Jonathan Payne.

Another January 10 daffodil photo from Columbus, Georgia! We wrote to photographer Jonathan Payne to get the story about these perfect blossoms: Columbus is located in Georgia, about 2 hours south of Atlanta on the western border. It is still early for daffodils, but we've had a quite a bit of warm weather recently which prompted this early showing. To be honest, this is the first one I've seen this year and it just happened to be growing in my yard, poking through an Azalea.

It was an overcast day on Jan 10th and the yellow was standing out sharply to the dull brown background. I grabbed a polarizer, just to see if I could get it to stand out a little more, and grabbed 4 or 5 shots. This was my favorite.

Staffordshire study in gold and white

it's cold outside, originally uploaded by pouletsue.

This radiant photograph was taken on January 5, 2009. We asked the photographer pouletsue for details: "It's cold outside" was taken looking out of my kitchen window in Staffordshire England. I bought a pot of Tete a Tete narcissi in the supermarket to cheer me up during a cold, frosty, and foggy post Christmas spell!

First Daffodils in Columbus, Georgia

1st daffodils of the year !, originally uploaded by ericdege.

More early, early daffodils, this time in bloom and in Georgia. We wrote to the photographer ericdege for details: The photo was taken at about 10:30 in the morning on 10 January 2009 in Columbus, Georgia and are in my neighbor's front yard.. it was interesting (well, to me anyway) that I'd been talking daffodils with a friend just a few days previously and in looking through my photos from last year, had noted that I took my first daffodil photo on 7 February ..so, I thought I had a few more weeks to wait and seeing them that morning was quite a surprise.

First Daffodils in Great Falls, Virginia

Early daffodils, originally uploaded by larryhuffman.

Looks like they grow them healthy, good-lookin', and very early in Virginia, judging by this January 4, 2009 photo. We wrote to the photographer Larry Huffman to ask for details: Yep they're in Great Falls, Va. I don't know the variety, but I get them from White Flower Farm in CT, here is the product page (http://bit.ly/rcdO). These are bred for the south apparently. I actually saw some of them coming up in late November, they are on a southern slope and whenever the ground warms up I get some that pop up. I get blooms in early to mid-March and they usually last into late May but the heat kills them pretty quick. I leave the leaves up until late June even though they flop over; I've read that's when they take up nutrients for the following year.

I'm adding a hundred or so every other year to the woods behind my house. I'll post some pics later this year when they come it.

Pretty in pots

Thinking of spring, originally uploaded by Culinary Fool.

We wondered if this photograph really was taken in snowy Seattle on January 4. The photographer Culinary Fool explains: Yes I just took the photo today. But they are not outside but bulbs in pots. ;-)

We think her flickr post is all we need to know about this winter season in Seattle: Close your eyes and dream of spring. No that is not more snow falling outside. No it is not!

Jumpin' Daffodils in Monticello, Arkansas

Stand Back, originally uploaded by Jim-AR.

Here's what Jim-AR says on his flickr post aptly titled Stand Back: It's only the fourth day of January and my daffodils are jumping out of the ground.... Been a mighty mild winter in southern Arkansas so far... Cross your fingers....

Jim sent us this additional information: The photo was taken this morning (01/04/09) from one of my daffy beds in my back yard in Monticello, AR (southeastern part of State).. Links to other early photos of daffodils that I made over the past two years are given below:
www.flickr.com/photos/jim-ar/2184689701/

... and here is Jim's daffodil photostream on flickr.

First daffodils in Yeovil, Somerset UK

Wordsworth woz 'ere..., originally uploaded by elb_the_prof.

We love the story behind this photograph by elb_the_prof, taken January 4 in Yeovil, Somerset UK: I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted these VERY early daffodils this afternoon... So gobsmacked was I that I had to turn the car round so I could come back and take a quick snap.

The professor adds: I'm not a horticulturalist, so have no information about these daffodils other than the fact that even here in the UK, it's far too early for them!

Spring is coming on the Northern California coast

Spring is coming!, originally uploaded by sarah northern california.

We love the rustic composition of this image. Here's what the photographer sarah northern california says about this January 3 photo: I just found these daffodils. They are on the back porch which I guess I haven't used in the daytime in a while. I bought a barrel of cheap bulbs (150) and stuck them everywhere last year.