Narcissus, an Ancient Greek hunter, was so beautiful that when he saw his reflection in a pool of water, he fell in love with it. He spent day and night lying by his reflection until his death. In his place sprouted the Narcissus flower, with petals so brilliantly yellow — today, this flower is commonly referred to as the daffodil.
If you’ve noticed these golden flowers appearing all around New York in the spring, chances are they’ve been planted in the fall by volunteers of the Daffodil Project.
The Daffodil Project, established in 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11, is New York City’s largest annual volunteer program, according to New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P). The project has had more than 400,000 volunteers plant more than 9 million daffodil bulbs as a living memorial to honor New Yorkers lost to 9/11 and more recently, COVID-19.
These yellow flowers popping up all over the city are becoming harder to miss by the year, as the number of daffodil bulbs planted in parks is expected to increase to 10 million by 2024.
Ivette Vargas, a member of Drew Gardens — a community garden along the West Farms section of the Bronx River — has been volunteering with the Daffodil Project for two years.
There are multiple ways in which one can volunteer — some volunteers distribute the bulbs free of charge to the public at the beginning of the fall, and others pick up the bulbs to subsequently plant them all around the city before the first frost.
Vargas chooses the latter.
This year, the Daffodil Project bulb distribution took place across the five boroughs — the Bronx held its giveaway on Oct. 8 at Mill Pond Park. Vargas and Julio Figueroa, the Drew Gardens manager, picked up four bags of bulbs there, which would amount to 800 bulbs given Vargas’ estimation of each sack having 200 bulbs, she told the Bronx Times.
“It’s very peaceful for me to look at flowers, especially daffodils,” said Vargas, adding that she believed that visitors of the…
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