we went out to abingdon square park today to sketch tulips and daffodils.
tulips came to us from persia during the sixteenth century. growers from the netherlands became obsessed with tulips and rare varieties were cultivated that could be sold for thousands of dollars (such as the famous black tulip).
walking through the park at night, we have noticed how the tulips like to close their petals at dusk. they are flowers of the sun.
chanda wrote a poem:
tulip tulip
pink and red
i like tulips
in my bed
"see these cheeky tulips, how they raise their coloured cups and demand to sup." (hafis, 1327-90, from the language of flowers, by marina heilmeyer).
on top of the stout, three-sided seed vessel (pistil) column, there is a three lobed yellowish stigma that anna botsford comstock notes looks like a doric capital. some may curl and look ionic.
morgana observed how there are six tepals, or three petals and three sepals.
inside, surrounding the seed vessel and stigma, are six stamen, paddle-shaped. their bases are expanded so they circle completely the bottom of the pistil column. bees cannot reach the nectar at the base of the pistil without dusting themselves with pollen, assuring cross-pollination.
we also studied the sunny daffodil today.
the word daffodil is the common english name for the narcissus. the ones we sketched are called narcissus bugei, as they look so much like a bugle.
chanda has been a bit weary of identifying details, so she has been writing poems:
daffodil daffodil
you are so laffodil
you are always smiling
when the sun shi-a-ning
there is one flower on the stalk of the daffodil and the poet's narcissus, but jonquils and paperwhite narcissus have two or more. i learned a lot today about daffodils. i never knew they were narcissus flowers, and i never knew that jonquils and paperwhites were all of the same family.
new daffodil bulbs are formed at the sides of the old one, and thus stay permanently planted and do not lift themselves out of the ground like the crocuses. the leaves should be allowed to stand as long as possible after the flowers have disappeared to furnish the new bulbs with plenty of food for storing.
