I search for flowers in books and when found, I annotate them. My usual method is to draw a tiny flower doodle on the margin, and now that I’m years into this annotating practice, I have quite a collection of books with flowers drawn all through them. There’s two memoirs I love that each contain thoughtful, beautiful daffodil moments perfect for daffodil lovers. I’m here on the blog today to recommend these books, give you a guide on annotating the daffodils in them, and (hopefully) inspire you to give these books as part of a daffodil-themed gift.
Daffodils All Over the USA
I’ve lived all over the place in the last 20 years. Maine (where I grew up), Maryland (college), Florida (first job), Washington State (for work), North Carolina (husband’s work), and now (my family’s hopefully forever home state) California. In each of these very different ecological zones, one flower has always had a steady presence. The daffodil. She pops up in all these places I’ve lived every spring.
Daffodils in My Books
Daffodils are some of my favorite flowers to spot in books. Daffodils just feel so comforting and universal, like no matter where I live or what region I read about, it’s possible for daffodils to be there with me. Here in this post I’m going to recommend two memoirs I adore, and both have profound daffodil moments. One is written by Pennsylvanian-now-Northern-Californian author, and the other by an Atlanta author.
Two Daffodil Memoir Recommendations
Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace
Whenever I see the year’s first daffodils, Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace resurfaces in my mind. In the essay titled “The Mother,” there are five passages about daffodils. Another Word for Love is a gorgeous and poetic memoir, that’s full of floral musings. Flowers, plants, and trees are earnestly present in most of Wallace’s essays. From community gardening to memoir writing, plants are just wholly a part of their life’s work.
Where to Annotate Daffodils in Another Word for Love
There are five quotes. I recommend placing a yellow tab by each paragraph and underlining or highlighting the word daffodil each time it appears. You can also draw a flower doodle in the margin. These are all in the same essay.
- “…we sang…how we loved the flowers and the daffodils.” (The Mother, p 203)
- “I’ve been thinking about loving the daffodils a lot lately. I think I really do love them. They are funny2. Small and perfect. Devoid of chaos. A star flower. A parking lot flower. A self-contained celestial fragment flower.” (The Mother, p 204)
- “The daffodils are interesting because they don’t seem to grow in huge clumps, nor do they look as though they were landscaped into being in the way the rest of suburban flowers look.” (The Mother, p 204)
- “It is not right to say they grow “wild” because it is rare for daffodils to grow from seed…Whenever you see a clump of daffodils standing alone in a field, it is a sign that someone once tried to make something beautiful there.” (The Mother, p 205)
- “When I was looking at the daffodils, it occurred to me that the beauty is much the same as emotions. It is nonsensical and it has no use but to remind us that there is more than us.” (The Mother, p 206-207)
If you want to annotate or check out all the florals in Carvell Wallace’s floral-filled memoir Another Word for Love, I’ve detailed those fully on Substack in “The Florals in Carvell Wallace’s Memoir – A Distilled Look At Plants in Another Word for Love”
Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway
In Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Tretheway, daffodils come up by two names: daffodil and Narcissus. Narcissus and daffodil flowers are a motif in the memoir and are part of what Tretheway describes as her “family mythology.” The role of daffodils in the myth of Persephone also comes up in the book.
Where to Annotate Daffodils in Memorial Drive
You will need 8 tabs to mark the daffodil and narcissus quotes in Memorial Drive. I recommend highlighting or underlining the word daffodil or narcissus every time they appear on a page. You can also draw a flower doodle in the margin.
- “Beyond those tales were the stories of Narcissus, Icarus, Cassandra, the riddle of the Sphinx—stories about bravery, vanity, hubris, knowledge.”(1. Another Country, p 22)
- “When I played too long before the mirror imitating my mother at her toilette, enthralled by my own face, it would be the story of Narcissus.” (1. Another Country, p 23)
- “The rest of the story carries its own omen. My grandfather had departed just two days before my mother was born, and within a week, his mother Narcissus traveled from Mississippi to New Orleans to verify the newborn’s paternity. Here, too, the character of Narcissus enters our family mythology—this time as a vain and color-struck woman who looked white and could not believe her son had married someone as dark as my grandmother. Narcissus Turnbough wanted to see herself reflected in my mother’s face. She wanted also to see if my mother had what she believed to be a particular family trait: a red birthmark at the base of the head that she had passed to each of her children. My mother did indeed bear the mark, but rather than be convinced of the indelible link between them, Narcissus took one look at my brown-skinned mother, then turned and left.” (1. Another Country, p 44)
- “The daffodils I picked for her on the way home from school are doubled in the mirror on her dresser.” (2. Terminus, p 52)
- “The school was the first place I began to feel at home. I could walk to and from the school bus stop by myself and, in the afternoons, I’d skip slowly along daydreaming and picking the flowers that grew along the sidewalk, black-eyed Susans or yellow and white daffodils, my mother back at the apartment waiting for me.” (2. Terminus, p 61)
- “I said the words daffodil and lollipop over and over until their meanings gave way to pure sound.” (2. Terminus, p 64)
- “I know only that it is winter, and already the daffodils are blooming in Atlanta. I know that I have picked them for her, a handful of yellow narcissi—the flowers planted, in the myth of mother and daughter, to lure Persephone to her doom: kidnapping by the lord of the underworld. She picks a bright flower and the earth splits open beneath her, taking her into its dark throat. It’s as though I had rewritten the myth, passed the doom onto my mother as easily as I had handed her that rough bouquet of daffodils. That night, descending to work beneath the city, my mother was already entering an underworld from which she would never fully emerge.” (2. Terminus, p 72)
- “She is smiling at me and I am like a daffodil, lifting my face to the sun.” (8. Accounting, p 111)
Ideas for Giving These Books as Gifts to a Daffodil Lover
I always think it’d be such a lovely gift to buy either of these books and pair them with an assortment of daffodil items, like
- daffodil bulbs to plant or a bouquet to enjoy
- a daffodil bookmark or daffodil stickers
Another touch I envision adding to this gift: pre-annotating the daffodil paragraphs, which I’ve listed above. You can use post-it notes or tabs for a damage-free option, so your recipient has the option to remove the annotations. Or, if you know the person really well (and know they don’t mind permanent writing in their books), you can highlight the passages and make margin notes. Of course, the cherry on top of this gift would be penning a little handwritten note to go with it all.
How to gift to someone who prefers to use the library, read ebooks, or read audiobooks.
If you can’t gift the book, write a letter! A letter is a gift and might be the perfect bookish gift for someone who prefers library books, audio books, or ebooks. In the letter, you can still tell them all about the daffodil pattern in the book(s). Using the quotes listed in this blog post, you can handwrite some or all of the daffodil passages you’d like them to notice as they read. Plus, you can still pair the letter with daffodil bulbs or flowers or tuck a daffodil sticker into the envelope with your letter.
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