March Gift Flower: Daffodil

Miniature daffodils "Tete a Tete" were a gift from an east coast friend last fall.

March Gift Flower: Daffodil

March gift flowers have to be either borrowed from someone who grows them or given as bulbs the fall before. That's how I received mine last year, two bags in a small box from a friend I had not heard from in some time. We had worked together a few years back and enjoyed comparing notes about our gardens.

His was a more formal design, with clipped topiary Boxwoods, old Weeping Willows and lovely Drooping Cherries - I used to tell him his garden sounded a little sad based on his description.

By comparison, my hillside garden is a combination of native redbuds and compact fruit trees sprinkled with anything that blooms. No grass to mow, ponds, lots of birdhouses, bird baths and bees. And frogs, lots of frogs. 

Frogs, he would say. 

One of my spring peepers makes a cameo appearance on a deck shepherd's hook.

Spring peepers, I would say, nodding. Little frogs with a big sound, they make a lot of noise on the first warm spring-like day, everyone knows just when that is. It's special.

We would go on with our business, no more garden talk until later, when we would be sharing a meal or waiting for something to start. The conversation would inevitably come back around to these little frogs and what they did.

Well, I would say, giving it due consideration. I find them swimming in the water in my empty flower pots. They sit under plants. They suction cup themselves to my windows. 

And peep?

They peep. Usually in spring, when the daffodils are blooming.

I didn't say it was scintillating conversation, now, did I. 

So when I opened the box of miniature daffodils, I knew exactly why he sent them. They were for the spring peepers, tiny flowers for the frogs.

Happy garden, happy frogs!

Charlotte