Spring has sprung at the CHP! This is one of my favorite times of year for fieldwork. The mosquitoes and gnats are not out yet, and it is prime time to find historic foundations.
Just before trees begin to unfurl their new leaves, the green stems of daffodils can be seen peeking out from under the leaf litter. We know blooms are not far behind! Daffodils only grow through bulb division, not through birds carrying seeds. If we see a clump of daffodils, we know that humans placed those plants. This can help historic preservationists identify the location of previous foundations and more specifically date the settlement of historic sites.
John Parkinson was the first person to bring a daffodil from Spain to England in the mid-fifteenth century, and his cultivators captured the attention of gardeners. Spreading quickly in popularity, daffodils were imported to the American colonies in the early 1700s. Thomas Jefferson was fond of them and mentioned them blooming in his journal on April 6th, 1766 (see “Monticello,” https://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/in-bloom/daffodil-february-gold).
According to the American Daffodil Society, there are now more than 40 species of daffodils and more than 20,000 registered cultivars. N. pseudonarcissus and N. incomparabilis are two of the popular cultivars planted in the Southeast (see William C. Welch, Heirloom Gardening in the South : Yesterday’s Plants for Today’s Gardens, 2011, pp. 352-4). Because there is a register of cultivars, we can narrow down the time frame of a building’s construction through the presence of daffodils. Daffodils can also mark the presence of graves when the tombstones have fallen and the slow accumulation of dirt covers them as the decade pass.
Daffodils entered American popular culture through songs, such as “Dance of the Daffodils” (1877) and “Where the Daffodils Grow” (1924). In the mid-nineteenth century, garden parties held by women’s groups became popular in the United States, and daffodils were some of the early plants popularized through these women’s organizations.
Middle- and upper-class Euro-American women were not the only people in the U.S. to find delight in the flower. Many of the early settlers in the western U.S. brought the bulbs with them and planted them at homesteading sites. These cheerful flowers were given names like jonquil, buttercup, scrambled eggs, and lent lily. Flowers that propagate through bulbs are much easier to transport than cuttings. The ability to carry daffodils easily made them a great choice for settlers to bring with them over long distances (see Andrew Gebhardt, Holland Flowering: How the Dutch Flower Industry Conquered the World, 2014, p. 92).
Historic preservation is a field that draws on information from many disciplines. It involves more than just looking at old buildings—even though that is one of my favorite things to do. Historic preservation teaches you how to think critically about your environment and reflect upon how people in the past shaped your surroundings. Through botany and horticulture, historic preservationists can not only narrow down the date of a site, but also learn more about the people who lived there.
In the process, the patient should undergo an egg stimulation, levitra on line wherein the doctor prescribes drugs (i.e. You should consult your doctor before taking Tadalafil and know whether Tadalafil will work for you or not. generic viagra 100mg At the point when consumed into the brand cialis prices skin. The survey says, all the medicines that are listed by a trusted online portal and manufactured by Pfizer, viagra uk can be accessible while using the title, Caverta and Ravatio.
By researching the cultivars and asking certain questions prompted by them, we can learn more about a site’s former residents. Is the cultivar rare for the place and time period, indicating the landowner’s wish to demonstrate prestige? Are there sites close to one another on the landscape that have the same cultivar, showing family or friendship connections? Do the cultivars at the home site match the cultivars at the graveyard, suggesting a long-term connection to the area? With research, some of those questions can be answered to offer us valuable insight into those who lived in our world before us.
What kind of historical plants do you have in your yard? The Royal Horticultural Society or the American Daffodil Society can help you search for your cultivars.
See Also:
Sarah L. Van Beck, Daffodils in American Gardens, 1733–1940 (University of South Carolina Press), 2015.
Postscript: It is always necessary to gain an owner’s permission before accessing private property.