THE GOL DEN CUP THAT CHEERS IN SPRING 



MODERN DAFFODIL 

 TYPES 



(Above) King Alfred the 

 giant Golden Trumpet 

 Daffodil, which at once won 

 favor. (Below) Lord Kitchener, 

 a newer Leedsii, white per- 

 ianth with lemon primrose 

 chalice. (Both natural size) 



i Chester J. Hunt 



jF NARCISSUS, who lost his heart, and incidentally 

 his health, in the contemplation of his reflection in a 

 fountain, was half so beautiful as his namesake of our 

 modern gardens, one's disdain of his vanity is abated. 

 Certainly the long, graceful trumpets of some of the White 

 Trumpet varieties of this much-improved flower recall the 

 rounded ivory limbs of the glorious youth of mythology and his 

 eyes could not have been more star-like than the blooms of the 

 newer poeticus forms. And so few flowers bear appropriate 

 names; the Narcissus are the very embodiment of youth and 

 springtime. 



After much patient effort and scant success with many peren- 

 nials, and disgusted by the lack of appreciation with which 

 Roses received my admiration and rewarded my labors in their 

 behalf, I turned disconsolately to hardy bulbs and, lo! for a num- 



"Daffodils 

 That come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty" 



Shakespeare 



WILLIAM D. IRVIN ARNOLD 



ber of years each spring has held a promise which has been more 

 than realized; and never yet a disappointment. 



To those who know Daffodils by but one or two of the 

 Yellow or Bicolor Trumpet varieties, and perhaps the old 

 Pheasant's-eye and double Van Sion, the wonders evolved 

 by the present-day hybridizer are a revelation. And, 

 best of all, the blossoming of these gorgeous creations is 

 almost as certain as the return of the vernal equinox — a 

 fact which one likes to hug close during the winter. 

 The colors of Narcissus, too, are so satisfying — soft prim- 

 rose yellows, shimmering silver, deep chrome yellow, citron, 

 apricot, lemon, canary, peach, sulphur, orange, and creamy 

 white; while for absolute whiteness the petals of one of the 

 poeticus forms make the white of a Lily appear dingy by 

 comparison. 

 When one has for years been amazed at the apparent lack 

 of color-sense in those who write the descriptions of flowers for 

 the average florist's catalog, it is refreshing to have blooms ap- 

 pear as represented; the words sulphur, canary, or apricot brook 

 no misunderstanding, and orange is orange the world over. 

 With the exception of orange-scarlet and the crimson line on the 

 edge of the cups of the Poeticus family there are no reds to be 

 dealt with — happily, for who has not shuddered at the chromatic 

 atrocities perpetrated in the names of "rose," "crimson," 

 "carmine," and "lilac"? Having malevolent magentas, crude 

 cerises, and noxious, bruise-like "Tyrian-roses" unfold before 

 my revolted eyes has made me wary of unknown reds in the 

 garden, and the word "mauve" has become to me a synonym 

 for suspicion. 



Have we grown a bit too fanciful in our gardening? "Gar- 

 den Pictures" are all very well, but to be obliged to gaze upon 

 flowers at certain hours of the day to obtain the full effect of 

 their coloring seems a trifle strained, and a color described as 

 "lovely in bright sunlight," "lighting up beautifully in the 

 late afternoon, " or requiring "white spires of Lupins and grayed 

 Phlox Stellaria" as a background for its finicky tints savors 

 just a little of the fantastic. Narcissus ask no stage settings, 

 no special lighting. 



Some Varieties that are Favorites 



MY NARCISSUS grow in and about an orchard on a hill- 

 side and each recurring April the ever-growing colonies 

 brandish their trumpets more lustily than ever before, and my 

 hilltop wears a diadem of gold. 



Under Baldwin Apple trees grows the gardenia-like N. alba 

 plena odorata, the double-flowered form of poeticus — fragrant, 

 dazzling in its whiteness, and wonderfully beautiful. This is 

 the only variety that I have found difficult to grow, but after 

 repeated trials in various locations it flourishes amazingly in the 

 shade provided by the trees, which grow in a rather moist 

 situation, although it is a somewhat shy bloomer the first year 

 after planting. 



Along the edge of a wood bordering the orchard are quanti- 

 ties of Golden Spur, the earliest Yellow Trumpet and the first 

 to flower, coming into bloom even before Van Sion and spreading 

 skeins of glowing color on the young grass. The Trumpet group 

 embodies those varieties having a big spreading central chalice, 

 or trumpet. These are followed by Emperor and Empress, the 

 well-known Bi-color and Yellow Trumpets, and the truly magni- 

 ficent Weardale Perfection, primrose and white trumpet, so huge 

 as to make understandable the emotion of the old woman who, 

 beholding a camel for the first time, exclaimed; "Why, there 



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