Constance and the 9/11 daffodils
“A ribbon of yellow around the island of Manhattan”
This is the Story of New York’s Daffodil Project, a living memorial to 9/11 which came about because of one bulb growers response to seeing the tragedy of the attacks on the World Trade Centre, unfold on his television.
New York January 2025.
This photograph was taken by a close friend and wonderful photographer Hilary Stock during a recent stay in New York.
I am really hoping that listeners in New York will send me photographs of the daffodils as they begin to bloom over the next coming weeks and I will share them on this website.
What to listen for in this Episode
In this episode, Constance Casey tells us how in 2001 she found herself part of a team planting one million daffodil bulbs around the city of New York. The bulbs were a gift, a gift from Hans van Waardenburg, a dutch bulb grower. He was watching the horror of the 9/11 attack on this his television and his response was to contact his friend Lynden Miller, a woman who has devoted her life to restoring the parks in New York. He offered her one million tulips. She knew that tulips would be eaten, by rats, so she suggested daffodils would be better. The city of Rotterdam also became a part of this extraordinary response to the tragedy.
Constance Casey who was working as a full time assistant gardener in the New York Parks department shares her memories from the start of this incredible project and then in conversation with Adam Ganser, the current Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks, discusses how the daffodil bulb giveaway, continues to this day. Adam says: “it's a really equalizer, getting people on their knees, putting their hands in the dirt, planting something, and then seeing it sprout and grow in the spring. Everybody finds joy in it.”
Constance remembers how the Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, (currently President & CEO at Brooklyn Botanic Garden) said he pictured: “a ribbon of yellow around the island of Manhattan”. I wonder if at the time he could have had any idea of how this ‘ribbon’ would grow? Adam Ganser says: “it's a beloved program. We talk about it now as the largest volunteer program in the city's history. So many people participate year after year, but it's grown every year as well. In all, I think we're up to around 12 or 13 million bulbs distributed over the 20 some years of the project. They're in every corner of the city”.
And now they have an additional goal; to expand the distribution of pollinators across the city by giving everyone seed packets they get from a pollinator seed provider in Staten Island. “And we're starting to try to dig into data on what the impact would be for the city, what the environmental impact would be to have 50,000 people planting pollinators across the city?”
How to Grow - Planting daffodil bulbs for beginners
If you are new to this podcast, I’d like you to know that we always learn to grow the plant in the story. The good news in this story is that as Adam Ganser puts it, when it comes to daffodil bulbs: “it's hard to screw it up that's what's so great about it. You really just have to get it in the ground in the fall before the ground freezes and then hope for the best. And then they keep coming back”.
And as Constance Casey reassures us: “daffodils will actually come up if planted upside down. Most bulbs will go down, figure it out and come around and go up, but it takes energy to figure that out”.
If you live in New York and you want to be a part of this project then you can find out more here.
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How to share your plant story
If you have a plant story that you would like me to dig into then you can email me: Sally@ourplantstories.com and perhaps it will feature in this new series of the podcast. Plant story episodes are monthly but do follow the podcast on your podcast app because I often publish Offshoot episodes that come from those stories and if you follow the podcast you will never miss an episode.
I would also love to see any photographs from New Yorkers this Spring of the daffodils in the city and I will share them on this website.
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview (00:00–02:00)
The Origins of the Daffodil Project (02:00–07:30)
Community Impact and Volunteerism (07:30–15:00)
Sustainability and Pollinator Initiatives (15:00–22:30)
Future Vision and Challenges (22:30–30:00)