Daffodil still life

One of the delights of having a garden is to be able to pick flowers and bring them inside and continue to enjoy them throughout the week.  This is especially true in Spring when the weather jumps back and forth between warm and cold.

One of my favorite group of spring flowers are Daffodils.  They are bright and cheerful flowers that burst out of the slowly warming ground and bounce back from late winter snows.  They remind us winter will end and spring will return.  Picked flowers will last for days in a vase; long enough for me to find the time to sketch and paint them.

Daffodil is a common name used for bulbs in the Narcissus genus.  They are not native to the US, but have been a popular plant in gardens and parks for generations.  The common large flowered variety are often found along roads and in meadows.  They continue to thrive long after the gardens they were planted in are gone. 

The flowers have a central bowl-shaped corona, three sepals and three petals.  The flower color ranges from white through shades of yellow and orange, pink and red.  The corona and perianth can be the same color, or different colors.   There are single flowered and multi-flowered forms.  The multi-flowered forms often have small delicate flowers.  Some flowers are fragrant.