April 2011 A to Z Blogging Challenge

What is the A to Z Challenge? It’s blogging a letter of the alphabet every day the month of April (with Sundays off for good behavior.) It began April 1st, with the letter A and ends April 30th, with the letter Z. You can click here to see who else is participating in this challenge.

Today's post is for the letter:

The letter "D" is such a fun letter for spring. You have daffodils that bloom to let you know that it is impossible for winter to last forever; though here in the Northeast, where we're still getting the occasional snowstorm, it seems spring will never fully take over.

Did you know there is an American Daffodil Society? I didn't until I sat down to type this post. Founded in 1954, the ADS promotes wider interest in daffodils; encourages scientific research and education on daffodil culture, breeding, diseases, pests, exhibiting, and testing; and encourages, coordinates, and sponsors shows and exhibitions of daffodils. They also record and distribute horticultural information about daffodils and register daffodil varieties and standardize their names in cooperation with international authorities.

There are international authorities over flowers?

The New England Society is located in Greenwich, CT. That's about 2 1/2 hours away from us. Some of the societies across the country have Facebook pages.

The website also has a set of guidelines for growing daffodils. I've found them to be pretty hardy around here, which is a good thing because my thumb is much more brown than green.

What flower makes you think of spring? Do you have a garden? What is your favorite part of gardening?