
Happy Friday, GPODers!
As I teased in the Earth Day post last Tuesday, I’m sharing my photos from a recent trip to the annual daffodil display at Laurel Ridge, in Litchfield, Connecticut. This private garden is a hidden spring gem and gift to the area, made open to the public for a few months every year and free for all that respect the rules of “no dogs, no picnics, and no picking flowers.”
These were the only requests of Virginia and Remy Morosani, the founders of Laurel Ridge Farms and the stewards who planted the original 10,000 daffodil bulbs that began this display in 1941. Over the years, more bulbs were added and downtime during the farming season was used to divide and further spread these cheerful bulbs. Though it was an expensive and laborious creation, the eclectic couple did not see this as a moneymaking opportunity but simply as something beautiful that needed to be shared with as many people as possible. To learn more about the founders of the Laurel Ridge daffodils, check out this amazing post on Instagram.
Found on a quiet road in the winding hills of Litchfield, this space has a naturalistic feel unlike that of any other public garden I’ve visited or seen photos of. Rather than perfectly organized rows of daffodils planted in a pattern or in evenly spaced clumps, the flowers pop up and spread in naturalized masses, with some areas denser and others more scattered. While different varieties can be found on the property, most of the daffodils planted were classic trumpet daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus, Zones 5–8).
Of course, that didn’t stop me from scouring the fields for every new or different variety and cultivar that I could find. One that wasn’t hard to miss was the ‘Dutch Master’ (N. ‘Dutch Master’, Zones 2–9), also a trumpet variety but in an iconic bright yellow.
While naturalistic in design, the human touch is still evident in low rock walls that are a staple of New England and are utilized to corral the masses of daffodils into different sections. In front of this wall, a lovely massing of large cupped ‘Ice Follies’ (N. ‘Ice Follies’, Zones 3–8) were erupting in blooms.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. . .
. . . For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
As I was conducting my research and gathering assets for this post, I realized that one of my predecessors, Michelle Gervais, featured Laurel Ridge on Garden Photo of the Day back in 2014! If you’re wondering what this exact destination looked like over 10 years ago, check that post out here: Fields of daffodils in Connecticut.
Do you have a local spring display that your community comes out en masse to enjoy? A street lined with the sweetest-smelling cherry blossoms? A park that gets covered in spring bulbs of all sizes and colors? Let us know in the comments, or consider sharing your local spring display with Garden Photo of the Day! Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
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Comments
Amazing!
Beautiful garden that looks so peaceful and inviting!
this looks like my ACCENT daffodils: cream with large salmon perianth. -mindy
https://www.rotex-flowerbulbs.com/en/narcissus-large-cupped-accent-14-16-50-loose-p-binbox/a5800
i found another look alike-zinzi
https://www.johnscheepers.com/flower-bulbs-index/narcissi/split-cup/narcissus-zinzi.html
Daffodils + Forsythia = Happy!!!
Wow, even growing on the island, beautiful!
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