a life well planned is a life well lived
The Captain’s Log Spring 2021
Daffodils and Investment Disciplines My layman’s research has taught me that the first known daffodil bulbs landed in Virginia around 1615. I use 1615 as the “circa” arrival date because those years mark the beginning of the wave of fresh emigrants arriving in “The New Country”. These European settlers, eager to establish their new lives in Virginia, transported the bulbs from their home gardens primarily to serve as a pleasant reminder of their previous lives and gardens in “The Old Country”. The daffodil bulbs, having been sown into the hems of the ladies’ dresses, were identified as an easy to transport garden memorabilia hearty enough to survive the arduous early 1600’s Atlantic crossings. Once planted in the untouched, nutrient rich soil of Virginia, the daffodils spread rapidly across the eastern territory, and in a few short years a unique and completely unexpected new industry was
established. During the early years of the bulb’s Virginia proliferation, Gloucester County of all places developed into the daffodil capital of the New World. What started as an attempt to beautify the land quickly developed into what would become a 400year economic enterprise. Today, daffodils remain throughout eastern Virginia as an economic catalyst for annual festivals, roadside beautification, and inventory for an internationally recognized gardening and bulb distribution business. Each year, during the most miserable days of Winter, I am always surprised at the exceptional resilience of the approximately three thousand daffodils on my property. The beautiful plants, which were in full bloom last Spring, died a slow and far too early death and withered back to their underground hiding places. In the dead of Winter, the shoots (continued on page 3)