Today’s post is full of encouragement and inspiration of what one woman accomplished being steadfast over a 50 year period!
The Daffodil Garden
To share with you where I first heard about this it is traced back to scrapbooking crops from over fifteen years ago where I would hear about a garden of daffodils in California that people would take their family to visit and get fantastic photos and they would be creating a double-page scrapbook layout of ‘The Daffodil Garden’. To make a scrapbook title for their 12″ x 12″ page one would use die cuts, Sizzix, Accu-cut die cutting machine or Mrs. Grossman’s alpha stickers – obviously this was prior to Cricuts (electronic cutting machine – now with the ability to tie into your computer)! I also heard about ‘The Daffodil Garden’ on a audio cassette tape from a Creative Memories Leadership talk by a presenter.
About The Daffodil Garden
Alma Jean Bauer, a school teacher, planted daffodils on her and husband Dale’s private property of five acres. This was done over a 50 year time span on the slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California (Running Springs, CA). It closed on Easter Sunday 2009 – they were both in their 80s.
From 1958 – 2009 for three weeks in springtime you could visit free of charge. While visiting it, apparently you could walk up to a posted sign and it answered what you were wondering about The Daffodil Garden:
“50,000 bulbs – One At A Time – Only One Woman – 2 Hands, 2 Feet – And A Very Small Brain – Began in 1958.”
I like to imagine Mrs. Bauer having written letters to another person with the same dedication and passion and being able to go back now and read those letters – what a treasure trove it would be and a delight to read! She does have some letters sent to her posted on the site.
These links to her own documentation about her garden:
- The Daffodil Garden Fact Sheet She states on the cover that the number of daffodils had grown to over 1,000,000 bulbs had been planted. There were 500 different kinds planted.
- On the Links page it gives a great listing of links to stories about The Daffodil Garden
- There are beautiful photos of 13 different Daffodil Divisions.
In addition, there is the book Daffodil Principle: One Woman, Two Hands, One Bulb at a Time by Jaroldeen Edwards (Author), Anne Marie Oborn (Illustrator) available on Amazon.
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” -Earl Nightingale
Perhaps reading today’s blogpost sparks in you the idea to start something small but to ‘keep at it’ and you may have a ‘buddy’ in mind that you could rope in (make that recruit) now to commit to writing each other back and forth letters encouraging your shared quest. Who knows – in 50 years – people could be reading your correspondence enjoying every morsel you had written!
Anchors Aweigh,
Helen
