A Bulb Moment

No, not a light bulb moment. A monocotyledon moment. A tulip, daffodil, paperwhite (narcissus), amaryllis, crocus, hyacinth moment.

I love flowers that bloom from bulbs. They are built differently from flowers without a power-packed, food-filled bulb from which to sprout. Most monocotyledons must pass through a period of cold or near freezing in order to bloom each spring which is why you can put these things in the bottom drawer of a refrigerator in the fall and “force” them to bloom early if you need them. How tough is that? Some info about monocotyledons that you may not know:

• The seasoning saffron is made from the styles and the stigmas (innards) of the crocus blossom and has been used for a seasoning for 4000 years. It was used as a pigment dye for 45,000 years before that.
• Some forms of hyacinth bulbs are pickled for consumption in Greece and Italy.
• Between 1634 and 1637, tulip mania occurred and the bulbs were so sought after that they were used as a form of currency in Europe. People traded 12 acres of land for 2 tulip bulbs.

Daffodils are my favorite flower and once you plant daffodil bulbs, they will multiply, move around and be there for years. If you pay attention, you can see where old home places were around here while driving down the back roads. In what is now cattle fields and empty lots are rows and clumps of daffodils still blooming each spring that previously marked yard edges, fence rows and driveways. The homes are long gone. The flowers still bloom. On the back roads to a local community called Talawah one day, I had to stop to get a photo of this old variety of daffodils growing wild in clumps in a cattle field. Surely marking another home place that no longer exists.

They are the first flowers to bloom in most places in the spring, pushing their way through snow and half-frozen ground to provide alternative forms of sunshine in places that wish the temperature would rise above 40 degrees for more than a few hours. They bloom in ditches, washed there by heavy rains. They bloom from one lone bulb in the middle of a yard because a mole drug the bulb there to eat then found it didn’t taste too good. (Daffodil bulbs are toxic and have been known to poison people who mistakenly used them in cooking instead of onions.) They smell good and last for quite a while as cut flowers inside. They come with 10 tiny flowers on one stem, one big flower on a stem, double blooms, triple blooms, ruffled blooms. Big and little, white, orange, yellow and every mixture in between. They bloom in the shade and in full sun. I love daffodils. There will probably be more photos as more bloom in my area. I have an obsession. Stay tuned.