The Country Garden Club of Weston wants to brighten your day–and the springtime at Weston High School–by planting 1,000 daffodil bulbs at the high school campus. Planting day is Wednesday, November 3 and the Garden Club is looking for help in burying all those tiny daffodil bulb-bodies.

Daffodils are my favorite spring flower–they are some of the earliest to bloom, and their bright yellow heads bobbing in the last of the winter chill just have to make you smile. If you look up flower meanings, daffodils are a symbol of rebirth and hope–incipit vita nova for you Latin aficionados and Wellesley alums. They have other more pedestrian values such as capturing nutrients in the soil and preventing erosion as well as providing nectar (and hope) for early season pollinators. Yeah, not sure about the hope part, but I do like to think about hopeful little butterflies.

On Wednesday, the planting will begin at 1 pm (do not attempt to get there early–the high school has early dismissal at 12:45 and I assure you things get very very ugly). Daffodil bulbs, instructions, maps, and tools will be provided. Please BYOS (bring your own shovel) if you have one. If you have or are a high schooler in need of community service hours, this is a great way to get them–especially because you will see the results of your labor next spring…and every spring from here on out. All work should be completed by 3:30 pm.

Please contact Tani Marinovich (tmarinovich@me.com) if you would like to help. For an Owl’s view of the Country Garden Club, please read this post from spring 2021.

And bonus poetry for those who need it on this rainy day: my favorite daffodil poem:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

By William Wordsworth

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.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

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.