5 March 2017
It’s strange what stimulates your mind, particularly as you age. Several weeks ago, I thought about what got me interested in becoming a botanist, and particularly concentrating in taxonomy and classification of plants. That led to my wondering what was the first flower that registered with me. I came to the conclusion it was daffodils.
Both my grandmothers had them in the yard and I learned what they were at an early age. I also learned they were the harbinger of Spring, at least in my area of the state of Mississippi. Later I was to learn that in north Mississippi, it was crocus.
By early summer, the daffodil blooms were gone and you mowed them down to allow the bulbs to go dormant and they would magically appear the next spring, often in greater numbers. I soon learned there were varieties like butter and eggs which really didn’t look to much like the classic yellow ones and paper whites which had the yellow outer layer of petals with a white cup.
That got me to thinking I hadn’t seen daffodils bloom in over 35 years and I decided I needed to plan a road trip to do so. Best layed plans…. Apparently it has been a very early spring and everywhere I searched, gardens were declaring the bloom over.
I did sign up on Facebook for a daffodil site and low and behold, I later received a notice from Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, GA that although the early bloomers were gone, there is a mid and late season. Gibbs advertises itself as the largest collection of daffodils in the U.S. With over 20 million planted.
Since this was to be a daffodil trip, I decided to stay in motels for the journey and not camp. The only problem was getting out of Florida. I knew not to try a 10+ hour drive to Ball Ground, so I decided to stay the night in Valdosta.
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There’s a relatively new welcome center and there is a short trail from there to an observation tower. The views were great but the tower shook and squeaked as you walked up and down. Maybe it’s settling into the muck of the Prairie.
On the way out, I toured downtown Micanopy, another first. Very quaint and very touristy with antique shops every other store.
I pulled into Valdosta around 5:30 pm, ate dinner and turned in. I was on the road to Jasper, Ga by 9 am.
