Daffodils and Skunk cabbage competing for attention at my farm
You may remember seeing my blog a year ago about daffodils and skunk cabbage at my farm. It's really refreshing to see anything having vivid color at this time of year, and because there's so much skunk cabbage growing in the wetlands of the farm, I have developed a strong appreciation for it. Plus, it knows to stay right there in its natural habitat. These photos were taken yesterday and I hope you enjoy them.
A couple of our favorite sources for daffodil bulbs:
BrentandBeckysbulbs
Dutchbulbs
It is so beautiful to mix a bit of untouched nature with a small helping hand of bulbs!
Posted by: Deria | April 14th, 2009 at 6:06 am
i'm jealous... spring is so much further over there, we still have some snow and today's temp is +3C. however, our daffodils do manage to pop up every year, sooner or later!
Posted by: liisamarja | April 14th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Thank you for beautiful pictures. I have enjoyed them and sense of your way of seeing in comment. I wish i could enjoy them more vivid and convenient way such as in flicker slide show mode or cooliris mode. I believe it will benefit many who enjoy your pictures regularly.
Posted by: daniel chung | April 14th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I love fields of daffodils grown throughout the forest and trees! There's a house a short distance from me here in SW Mass. that has the most gorgeous display of daffodils that I've ever seen. Each year I try to get a better photo than in the past. What I really need is a wide angle lens. As always, your photos are gorgeous!
Posted by: Rebecca the Housewrecka | April 14th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Martha:
I just love the beauty of nature around your farm. The daffodils around the pond and the carriage road are my favorite. Skunk cabbage is lovely. Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos of your farm.
Linda
Phila., PA
Posted by: Linda | April 14th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Did anyone else notice the False Hellebore, a toxic plant, mixed in with the Skunk Cabbage? It has parallel veins in its leaves giving it them a pleated look versus the Skunk Cabbage with its net of leaf veins.
Posted by: Suma | April 14th, 2009 at 7:43 am
How beautiful!
Posted by: melanie | April 14th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Beutiful photos, I love daffodils!
Posted by: Ivory Pearl Interiors | April 14th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Best skunk cabbage poem ever is by Mary Oliver. It ends: "What blazes the trail is not necessarily pretty."
Beautiful poem, check it out sometime.
Posted by: Sonya Chloe | April 14th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Glorious displays of daffodils...it encourages me to plant more each year! Enjoy the Spring beauty around you, Martha. It's sunny here today and i plan to be out enjoying the fragrance of our hyacinths and our smaller but fetching display of daffodils.
Posted by: Sherey | April 14th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Hi Martha,
Your daffodils are looking good and it was nice to check out the blog from last year again, not just for the flowers but to see Sharkey teasing the donkeys while Franny enjoyed the flowers. Those two are something else!
I found the video clip from this morning on CNBC but since you said you might post it, I won’t divulge the contents for those who haven’t seen it. Good content though!
Thanks again for your pictures and I agree the skunk cabbage has great leaves. I like foliage almost as much as flowers. Trish
Posted by: Trish | April 14th, 2009 at 10:45 am
OH, What a lovely place to enjoy life!
The first time I seen daffodil's growing
in the grass was in an article about Tasha
Tudor. What a lovely surprize it was.
A park not far from here has small daisy like
flowers growing in the grass. It lifts ones spirit.
I found a small pond in the city with a couple
of geese in it.
I noitced you have donkey's in your last years photos. So cute! Have you visited Katherine Dunn's blog before? I love her paintings and illustrations of her donkey's. She is writing and illustrating a children's book. One of her donkey's has a blog too.
Kristen at Tollipops is having a giveaway and she said that if someone could get you Martha to enter the giveaway it would give us another chance at winning her giveaway.
So if you'd like to check out her giveaway click Flassie and I've put up a link to it. I also put up a link to Elsa Mora's blog where I found the giveaway posted in the first place. I love her art also. She is such a beautiful person. I added Katerine Dunn's blog if you'd like to check her blog out also.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Have a Beautiful Day!
God Bless You and Yours
and Your Beautiful Life!!!
Posted by: Flassie | April 14th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I wish I could hear the squawking geese, too! I LOVE Canada geese - all waterfowl, for that matter, and their wackwackwacking is and always will be music to my ears! My favorite springtime songbird is the American robin, and my mostest [giggle] favorite spring flower is daffodils - all kinds! A potential problem, see, is that while perusing those seed-catalog-bibles, when you have passion for a certain plant, you want them allll! AND...then, too, the beloved-but-sometimes-pesky squirrels love them too...need I say more?!! (I know about planting bulbs in wire cages.) The drifts along the service roads are phenomenal and when they come into full bloom, it's going to be breathtaking!
My heart! Ba-buum ba-buum!
=^..^=
"What I enjoy is not the fruits alone, but I also enjoy the soil itself, its nature and its power."--Cicero
Posted by: Cindy Bricker | April 14th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I LOVE daffodil time.
Your naturalized daffs are so gorgeous.
I wrote about my Easter daffodil arrangement on my blog.
http://potsnpies.blogspot.com
Posted by: Pam Regentin | April 14th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
After viewing these photos and photos of your area in the past - you would have to BLOW TORCH me off your land. I would never go into NYC EVER! No way!!!
Pam from California
Posted by: Pam From California | April 14th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Hi Martha, Amazing and beautiful photos. Watched you online here is the link on CNBC Martha! http://www.cnbc.com/id/30207979/site/14081545
you looked so beautiful.
God Bless you and protect you always.
muaaaaaa
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | April 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Gorgeous!!
Posted by: susieshomemade | April 14th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
PS. Martha, You also might like to check out Elsa Mora's new book called, Blossom Buddies if
you decide to check out the giveaway.
Have a Beautiful Inspiring Week!
Posted by: Flassie | April 14th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
The daffodils are just beautiful. And, I love the willow trees! So majestic when they are in full bloom.
Posted by: Sherry | April 14th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I like your bulbs. Mine are almost done blooming.Only the late blooming paper whites are still in bloom. I wish I knew a place to help me identify some of my bulbs. One I call the ugly daffodil because it is all ruffled and sometimes has some green mixed in the petals. The other looks like a purple hyacinth, but it only has about five or six flowers on the stem and they are spaced apart. Both plants came from an old place we bought here in Mississippi and I transplanted them to our home.
Posted by: Dianne Echols | April 14th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
i have always envisioned similar landscapes...over the years i have planted hundreds of daffodils, aspiring to your beautiful scenes...i use excellent quality bulbs and every spring i expect the show to begin, but the animals ofthe woods have eaten off my vision...i have even planted the bulbs under chichen wire...just wishing yours was mine..ENJOY!...I have...Debbie
Posted by: debbie tarlecky | April 14th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
The honey bees LOVE skunk cabbage, which is an early nectoring plant. Up in your neck of the woods, aside from maple, there's not much up this time of year for the nector bees really crave.
Posted by: suzq | April 14th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Regarding daffodil poems - Edna Saint Vincent Millay has several wonderful daffodil poems - now that I think of it, her home "Steepletop" is near Austerlitz, New York -
http://www.steepletop.org/millaystphouse.htm
Love to see a magazine story on "homes of American poets" - international poets would be great too - Pablo Neruda lived by the sea.
Posted by: Sonya Chloe | April 14th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Oh the daffodils look lovely today! Are skunk cabbage related to hostas?
Posted by: Norbie K. Las Vegas | April 14th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Hi Martha, What fun it is to compare your daffodils and skunk cabbage photos from a year ago with those you took yesterday. The only differences are that last year looked much sunnier and Francesca and Sharkey are missing. Knowing those two, they are probably very busy twittering or writing a new blog. I'll have to check with Dudley Do Right because he keeps close tabs on his new girl friends. Thanks for sharing this beautiful sign of spring. Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | April 15th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Hi Norbie,
I'm so glad you enjoyed seeing my daffodils. To answer your question - no, skunk cabbage and hostas are not related.
Posted by: Martha Stewart | April 15th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Martha...thanks for going daffodil crazy...and peony crazy...and chicken, donkey, dog-cat crazy! It's CRAZY living! It's ALL good!
Posted by: tinay | April 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Hi Martha,
I'm glad you took a photo of a daffodil about to unfurl. That is as beautiful as a full bloom because the sheath is so like a sheer fabric, like organza. By contrast the yellow possesses such strong force just about to burst out into bloom. It's quite mysterious, strong life force, just wonderful and compelling to examine. Georgia O'Keefe was right --- one can never look at a flower for too long.
Posted by: Penny | April 17th, 2009 at 1:37 am
We must be kindred spirits! I have long wanted to own a country home for no other reason than to have a long driveway to naturalize daffs along. With the current economy, maybe someone would sell me their driveway without the home?
I am currently working on a plan for my "back 40" which extends into the woods in my Pacific Northwest backyard. I would like to bring some color and depth into it, so seeing your woodland pictures is inspirational!
Posted by: Christine | April 21st, 2009 at 2:28 am