Meetings with plants: Narcissus ‘Thalia’
Bramble & Briar #103
At some point – it was around the time I was coming to terms with the fact that, while I was beginning to relax about yellow in the garden, I still thought that yellow daffodils looked like LEGO flowers – I remember deciding that it was ok to plant a narcissus, as long as it was white.
And not just the petals – so poeticus was out, and not just because at the time it still appeared to me as though its trumpet had been violently and gorily amputated (go take another look, you’ll never see it the same way again) – but the corona as well. Obviously, the leaves could be green (I’m not a monster) though a glaucous tinge would be preferable, and the whole affair should reek of elegance and sophistication so if the petals could manage to be gracefully reflexed, then so much the better. The form could only lead me to the Triandrus group of daffodils, the colour narrowed it down to ‘Thalia’, and I’ve been in love with the flower ever since. Still now, when a yellow daff has lost any power it once had to offend me (the ghastly ones, I’ve realised, can come in any colour).
This white one is a beauty but when my back garden which has been brown or white with snow changes to a small fiend of yellow daffs - it can bring great joy!