The name of the daffodil that is being planted in this project is Narcissus Marieke. Each bulb has two huge, upward facing flowers with a vivid, yellow perianth and a long, dark yellow trumpet. They grow 18" to 20" in height. The line in the project will have 10,000 bulbs with 20,000 flowers planted 6"to 7" deep for approximately 1/2 mile in length.

To be classified as a Trumpet Daffodil, their flowers must have trumpets as long as, or longer than, the petals. They are much loved for the fact that deer and rodents do not like to eat them and that they have a long blooming season with large, bold flowers. Blooming time is late April.

University of Michigan's Nichols Arboretum is a 123 acre "living museum" nestled in the hills adjacent to UM's Central Campus. The 1906 historic design by O.C. Simonds celebrates the dramatic topography. Long views are framed by the Arb's collection of Michigan native plants and plants from around the world. For more information about the "Arb" check out their website: http://www.umich.edu/~wwwarb/index.html

Springtime, O Springtime, what is your secret,
The bliss at the core of your magical mirth,
That quickens the pulse of the morning to wonder
And hastens the seeds of all beauty to birth,
That captures the heavens and conquers to blossom
The roots of delight in the heart of the earth?

— Sarojini Naidu

Excerpt from 1929 John Scheepers Beauty from Bulbs Catalog, a treatise on the leading varieties of bulbs suitable for outdoor and indoor culture and of proven merit for American gardens:

Narcissi (Daffodils)
When one begins to dig and plant, one little knows the joy which will grow out of the soil, and descend from the skies, and gather from far off places and times to gladden your soul. Untroubled happiness begins and ends with it. One realizes that the earth mother has coveted the powers of making herself beautiful.
The Daffodils, coming up before the frost cracks have melted together in the ground, send up their crowded spikes with a wonderful concentration of purpose, and almost while you watch them, one of the seeming leafy blades will swell into a bud and urge itself on, up and above the others, until it stands confessed — a Daffodil bud all yellowed in the sun, and ready to open its flower in the night, when no one can see the mystery of its birth.
Daffodils — the very poise of the flower-head is the perfection of grace, and to watch an early cluster stand swaying upon their individual stems is to fancy they are like a group of nymphs, each one more graceful than the others.