We chose the daffodil as the symbol of our new small business Grave Care For You because the flowers symbolise hope, and light and joy, all so necessary at a time when it can seem there is none of that in our lives.
But the early flowering daffodil is one of the first Spring blooms we get in the UK – and what a lovely sign of better things to come, whether that’s in the climate or in our lives. We can even get them from Christmas from the Isles of Scilly. And of course we can plant them in October to give us something to look forward through the less cheerful Winter months!
The most famous reference ever to daffodils in literature probably the great Lake District William Wordsworth’s in his poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: I’d be willing to bet that most of the readers of this article had to study it at school!
Does anyone remember the books about Cornwall written by Derek Tangye? My mother brought some home when we lived in nearby wild West Cornwall when I was a child and I was fascinated by them. He wrote of the struggles to grow daffodils to make a living in what was such an isolated part of the world then.
Apparently there are 13,000 different varieties of daffodils from the cheeky little miniatures to the big, brassy ones that just look like bursts of sunshine. There is even an International Daffodil Registrar in the UK!
There is also a language of flowers, ‘Florigraphy’ and that has a strong South Yorkshire connection, believe it or not! The amazing Lady Mary Wortley, of Wortley Hall near Barnsley and just north of Sheffield, saw the custom in 1716 at the Sultan’s court when she was wife of the English ambassador to Turkey and the idea grew so that by Victorian times it was quite common that flowers were used to send secret messages.
The daffodil – which we sometimes call a jonquil or narcissus – can mean love, new beginnings, and rebirth.
The daffodil is the national flower of Wales honouring Saint David who founded a monastery in West Wales on the site of what is now St David’s Cathedral. t’s thought that Prime Minister David Lloyd George, himself a Welshman, made it popular to wear the daffodil on St David’s Day, March 1st.
If you would like us to put an arrangement of daffodils by the headstone of your loved ones when we are tending their memorial, please call or email.
A daffodil in the snow by Bruno / Germany from Pixabay
A host of daffodils by Gerhard G. from Pixabay
