Winterthur in Daffodil Time 
To translate into words the impressions of part of an April day at 
Winterthur is an undertaking beyond my powers. But pleasures such 
as these will effervesce and the overflow must sometimes be caught in 
the cup of written expression. 
Now in the first place the light was perfect. A fine garden requires 
its own atmosphere to be seen at its most perfect point. Could there 
be for Daffodil time at Winterthur a more wonderful thing than 
alternating sun and shade? My hour there was late afternoon. No 
sooner had the eye rejoiced in the delicious pictures of that noble 
woodland, carpeted with tones of cream-white, yellow, and orange 
flowers, than the pale glow of an April sun spread over the whole, 
threw the long shadows of the tree trunks athwart the Daffodils and 
gave an effect of supreme loveliness to the picture. 
The Daffodils at Winterthur — and there are thousands upon 
thousands of them — bring England into America. How I wish my 
English friends in gardening might see this transatlantic sight! Mr. 
du Pont follows an original plan of planting Daffodils (he has described 
it in this Bulletin and in the Daffodil Yearbook of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society) by means of laying down branches and twigs to 
outline his groups or drifts of flowers. By this means he has on the 
ground a visible plan, yet to all intents and purposes an invisible one. 
By this means also he secures a most unstudied and charming effect 
when bloom is due. The flowers are planted in irregular colonies, 
sometimes tightly packed, sometimes rather loosely set — always 
with an eye to those two great matters of color contrast and contrast 
in form, in height and habit. Also, let me add, the color of fob' - ■ 
is made note of, as in Daffodil Spring Glory, a beauty of a flower wh x ^n 
for the first time I saw at Winterthur. 
As one stands below the slope of wooded hillsides and looks 
upward, the Spring picture of those drifts of delicate color in Daffodils 
has an almost unearthly beauty. Paradise itself could give no more. 
To dwell for a moment upon varieties here : the aristocrats among 
Daffodils are used freely for fine groupings: William Goldring, Auto- 
crat, Spring Glory, Firebright, Lucifer, Mrs. Langtry, Queen of Spain 
are among the many kinds. Now and again a very rare and precious 
variety is seen — a few bulbs for trial, perhaps. 
Thus far I have only made mention of the Daffodils, and these are 
the important April picture in one part of this place; but look down 
the walk along the hillside which drops entirely away from the Daffo- 
dils to a stream below, — here are Daffodils again, grown in masses, 
