The Lent Lily.

The Lent Lily.

by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

'Tis spring; come out to ramble

The hilly brakes around,
For under thorn and bramble
About the hollow ground
The primroses are found.

And there's the windflower chilly
With all the winds at play,
And there's the Lenten lily
That has not long to stay
And dies on Easter day.

And since till girls go maying
You find the primrose still,
And find the windflower playing
With every wind at will,
But not the daffodil,

Bring baskets now, and sally
Upon the spring's array,
And bear from hill and valley
The daffodil away
That dies on Easter day.

'Tete-a-Tete'

'Jumblie'

 'Jumblie'

'King Alfred'

Narcissus poetics recurvus.

Narcissus poetics recurvus, still to look forward to in the garden.

The wild daffodil, the National flower of Wales and the county flower in our neighbouring Gloucestershire, is smaller than the garden cultivars and often referred to as the Lent lily because of when it flowers.  They flower from around mid-March through to April.

Wild daffodils, or Narcissus pseudonarcissus, were once a common sight in England, but the ploughing of meadow land during the war years and use of chemicals has led to them becoming less common. In Gloucestershire, around the villages of Dymock, Kempley and Oxenhall close to the Herefordshire border, wild daffodils once carpeted the meadows, orchards and woods. 

Walks along The Daffodil Way and other events are organised by these villages to celebrate the Daffodil.
This area is known as the Golden Triangle.

 In the words of Lascelles Abercrombie:

From Marcle Way,
From Dymock, Kempley, Newent, Bromesberrow,
Redmarley, all the meadowland daffodils seem
Running in golden tide to Ryton Firs,
To make the knot of steep little wooded hills
Their brightest show

The local people use to pick the daffodils and send them by train to sell in the London flower markets.

The Ledbury poet John Masefield wrote:

And there the pickers come, picking for town
Those dancing daffodils; all day they pick;
Hard-featured women, weather-beaten brown,
Or swarthy-red, the colour of old brick.

I hope you have enjoyed the Lent Lily wherever you have seen it growing.
Happy Easter.

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