Daffodil Project 2010

Update 2010-10-22: Manhattan distribution date changed.
Updated 2010-10-09: Bronx distribution date and location changed.
Updated 2010-09-23: Added distribution dates and sites.


Daffodil bulbs just planted in place in a tree bed on Cortelyou Road in November 2007.
Daffodil bulbs in place

Today and tomorrow are the last two days to request Daffodil bulbs from New Yorkers for Parks for this year’s Daffodil Project. Bulbs will be distributed in October. In Brooklyn, bulbs will be available for pick up on Saturday, October 23, from 8am-11am, at Grand Army Plaza at the Greenmarket Manager’s tent near the white flagpole.

For nearly a decade the Daffodil Project, a living memorial to 9/11, has been a citywide effort to beautify every neighborhood by planting daffodils. Led by New Yorkers for Parks in cooperation with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, this annual volunteer effort serves as a living memorial for the victims, a symbol of remembrance, and an act of rebirth that involves citizens in the revitalization of their communities.

Each fall, New Yorkers for Parks distributes hundreds of thousands of daffodil bulbs to New Yorkers in all five boroughs. The bulbs are free to anyone who commits to planting them in a park or public space.

Dutch bulb supplier Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs has pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project each year as long as there are volunteers willing to plant them. Over 20,000 New Yorkers have responded to this challenge, making the Daffodil Project one of the largest citywide volunteer efforts.

Since the project’s inception, nearly 4 million daffodils have been planted throughout New York City.
The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

Distribution Dates and Sites

Thank you to all the community groups who signed up for bulbs for partnering with us to make this living 9/11 memorial possible. Bulbs will be distributed to those who registered at the five sites across the city (one in each borough). Please try to arrive earlier rather than later.

Staten Island, Silver Lake Tennis House: Sunday, October 17th, 10am-12pm
On the Forest Avenue side of Silver Lake Park near the intersection of Hart Boulevard and Forest Avenue.

Brooklyn, Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket: Saturday, October 23rd, 8am-11am
At the manager’s tent near the white flag pole.

ManhattanDate changed – Union Square Greenmarket: Sunday, October 24th, 10am-1pm
At the manager’s tent near the corner of East 15th Street and Union Square West.

The BronxDate and location changed – Bronx Borough Hall Greenmarket: Tuesday, October 26, 10am-12pm
at the manager’s tent, Grand Concourse between 161st and 162nd streets

Queens, The Overlook in Forest Park: Saturday, October 30th, 10am-1pm
At 80-30 Park Lane, Kew Gardens NY 11415. Enter through the service road.

We are asking groups who requested over 300 bulbs to bring their own bags or boxes to take the bulbs away on the day of the distribution. Tote bags will not be handed out this year. Thank you for your assistance with this!

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Related Content

Other Daffodil Project posts.

Links

The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

Flatbush Daffodil Project – 11/14 & 11/15

11/14 ONLY – CANCELLED due to rain (remains of Hurricane Ida). Join us Sunday, 11/15, for a beautiful day of Daffodil bulb planting!


Daffodil bulb

Join Sustainable Flatbush and your fellow urban gardeners to beautify neighborhood tree beds by planting daffodil bulbs!

The Daffodil Project was originally created to commemorate September 11th; a Dutch bulb grower donates 500,000 bulbs each year to NYC community groups who plant them in neighborhoods all over the five boroughs. This year, New Yorkers for Parks distributed more than 125,000 Daffodil bulbs for planting throughout the City. Sustainable Flatbush received 500 bulbs for planting in tree beds and other public areas in our neighborhood.

This will be Sustainable Flatbush’s second year of co-sponsoring the Daffodil Project locally. If you enjoy gardening, feel like digging in some dirt, or if you just want to delight in the company of your neighbors, join us this weekend!

WHAT: Flatbush Daffodil Project
WHEN: Saturday and Sunday, November 14th and 15th, from 10:00am until 12:00pm
WHERE: Meet in front of Vox Pop Cafe at 9:45, 1022 Cortelyou Road (corner of Stratford Road)

(Please note: rain cancels this event! Call us at 718-208-0575 if in doubt)

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Related Content

Daffodil Project posts

Links

Flatbush Daffodil Project 2009, Sustainable Flatbush
The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

Daffodil Project 2009

Update 2009.10.18: Kensington date of 10/18 was rained out. Rain date is 10/25.


The Daffodil Project 2009 distribution at the Greenmarket in Grand Army Plaza, outside Prospect Park, Saturday, October 10, 2009
Daffodil Project Distribution, Grand Army Plaza, October 2009

The Daffodil Project was originally created to commemorate September 11. … The Daffodil Project is made possible in part by the generosity of a Dutch bulb supplier, Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs, who has pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project each year as long as there are volunteers willing to plant them. More than 20,000 volunteers have responded to his challenge so far. And thanks to their efforts, more than 3 million yellow daffodils [bloomed] in over 2,000 individual sites across the five boroughs in the spring of 2009.
The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

Here are some locations in Brooklyn where you can get your bulb on with the Daffodil Project this season.

Kensington, Sunday, October 25

PICK UP A SHOVEL AND MAKE KENSINGTON GREENER (AND YELLOWER)!
WATCH CHURCH AVENUE BLOOM!

Sunday, October 25th, is Daffodil Day in Kensington. (18th was rained out)

Join your neighbors as we plant daffodil bulbs on Church Avenue and its side streets. In the spring, watch the flowers that we planted bloom!

From 9:00 a.m. to noon, volunteers will:

  • loosen soil in tree pits
  • plant daffodil bulbs
  • go to Connie’s Cafe for free coffee and a muffin!

Wear clothing and shoes that you don’t mind getting some dirt on. If you can, bring:

  • a hand cultivator
  • a trowel
  • a bulb borer
  • anything else that’s useful for digging and planting
  • extra gardening tools, if you have them, for your neighbors to use.

We’ll meet at 9:00 a.m. in front of Astoria Federal Savings, at the corner of Church and McDonald avenues.

Connie, the owner of Connie’s Cafe (corner of Church Avenue and E. 5th Street), has graciously agreed to donate coffee and muffins for the volunteers.

This neighborhood event is sponsored by KARMABrooklyn (Kensington Area Resident/Merchant Alliance) and WKAG (West Kensington Action Group).

Cortelyou Gothic

Flatbush, Saturday and Sunday, November 7&8, and November 14&15

Again this fall, Sustainable Flatbush will sponsor Daffodil bulb plantings at locations throughout Flatbush. As we get closer to the dates, we’ll announce the locations and times and how you can get involved.

Related Content

Flatbush Daffodil Project, Fall 2008, 2008-11-01
The Daffodil Project is in bloom on Cortelyou Road, 2008-04-02
The Daffodil Project on Cortelyou Road, 2007-11-11
The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road, 2007-11-04
The Daffodil Project: Grief & Gardening #5, 2006-11-26

Planting bulbs from the Daffodil Project in my front garden, Fall 2006

Links

Daffodil Day in Kensington, Kensington Area Resident/Merchant Alliance (KARMA)

Sustainable Flatbush

The Daffodil Project, New Yorkers for Parks

Sunday in the Garden

Sunday was warm, highs in the 60s (F). The Crocus were open. And the honeybees were swarming over them.

Honeybee on Crocus tommasinanus
Honeybee on Crocus tommasinianus

There are at least five (5) honeybees in this photo. Can you find them all?
Crocus tommasinianus

This is the third year for these little Crocus tommasinianus. They’ve grown into this small grove from just a handful of corms. Here’s how they looked in March 2007:

Crocus tommasinianus and Eranthis hyemalis

The Eranthis in the above photo have not persisted. You can see how the Crocus have thrived.

Related Content

Other posts about the Front Garden

More Heirloom Bulbs in the Front Garden

The front garden Saturday morning
Front Garden

Lots of bulb action in the front garden lately. Just a couple days of warm weather and things really took off. This is what it looked a week ago:

The Front Garden

These photos of the Hyacinths are also from a week ago. Heirloom Hyacinth “Queen of the Blues” is the light blue one. It’s hard to render the color accurately on-screen; it’s a pale, powder blue which looks different depending on whether it’s sunny or overcast, or in the shade or sun. It’s been blooming for two weeks now. Today, it’s just starting to flop over and fade.

Heirloom Hyacinths

Heirloom Hyacinth 'Queen of the Blues'

Heirloom Hyacinth 'Queen of the Blues'

The dark purple one is heirloom Hyacinth “King of the Blues.”

Heirloom Hyacinth 'King of the Blues'

What the camera can’t capture at all is the scent. These heirloom Hyacinths are intensely fragrant, especially “Queen”; those eight inflorescences perfume the entire front yard and the sidewalk in front of our house.

Two more bulbs opened up over the past week. An unidentified Daffodil obtained from the Daffodil Project, and the unbelievably red Tulipa linifolia, which I just planted this season.

Daffodils and Tulipa linifolia

Daffodils

Tulipa linifolia

Tulipa linifolia

Tulipa clusiana was just starting to open up today, but I didn’t get any shots of that yet. Something to look forward to for later in the week.

Related Posts

Sprign has Sprung, March 2, 2008
The Front Garden Evolving, January 24, 2007

Cortelyou Crocuses!

This morning I took a slight detour from my commute routine to check the tree pits along Cortelyou Road for blooming Crocuses. I was rewarded:

Cortelyou Crocus

It may not look like much, but this is only one of the 400 Crocuses neighborhood volunteers planted last fall in some of the tree pits along Cortelyou Road between Coney Island Avenue and East 17th Street.

It also has a companion blooming in the same tree pit:

Cortelyou Crocus

Until the rest of them start blooming, if you’re not looking for them, you’ll probably overlook them. Here’s how they appear in situ as you walk by the tree pit:

Crocus blooming in a treepit on Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn
Crocus blooming in a treepit on Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn

The Crocuses have been up for a month; these are the first blooms. The Daffodils are also emerging in several of the tree pits.

Someone’s (or someones’) been doing a good job keeping the tree pit fairly clear of garbage. Nevertheless, you can identify several fragments of urban street detritus, including chewing gum, bits of plastic straw, and um, organic material.

This morning I didn’t see any bags of garbage in the tree pits themselves. When I see this, I try to stop and lift the bags out to place them on the outside of the protective fences. But for the past few days I’ve also seen a bike locked to the inside of the fence, right where the bulbs are coming up. I want to make up some signs to put along all the tree pits to remind folks:

LIVE PLANTS
NO TRASH
NO BIKES
NO DOGS

The bike locked up so it’s crushing the emerging bulbs deserves its own sign.

Over the next two weeks we should see a succession of different Crocus blooming. These yellow ones look like Crocus chrysanthus or something similar. Other may be purple, blue, or even white. I purchased “mixed” Crocus for this planting, so that’s what we should expect!

Related Posts

Cortelyou Road Crocus Watch, February 4
Tree Pits are not Dumpsters, November 18, 2007
The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road, November 4, 2007
1,000 Daffodils for Cortelyou Road, October 27, 2007
The Daffodil Project: Grief & Gardening #5, November 26, 2006

Links

The Daffodil Project

Cortelyou Road Crocus Watch

Update 2008.03.06: The Crocuses are blooming!


Despite this morning’s brief snow flurry, Spring is nearly upon us. That means that the 1,000 Daffodils and 400 Crocus which dozens of neighborhood volunteers planted along Cortelyou Road last fall will soon bloom. The crocuses are already up and may bloom within the next two weeks.

This is a good time to remind businesses, building owners and managers, residents and visitors along Cortelyou Road that tree pits contain live plants. They should not put bags of garbage in them. This is especially important now that the plants are coming up.

Most building and business owners do not use the tree pits as dumpsters. I’ve only seen it done twice in the past two months. But all it takes is one thoughtless dumping of garbage, and the whole season of growth in that tree pit will be destroyed.

Beyond not damaging what’s growing there, any care that owners and businesses can take to keep tree pits neat and clean will make a big difference. Keeping the tree pits clear of litter is the single most effective thing they can do. Just like graffiti and broken windows, keeping after trash shows that people care for the area, and are watching out for it.

Over two dozen people turned out to help plant the tree pits last fall. That’s a big turnout for something that was organized very informally. This shows that residents value the new streetscape along Cortelyou Road. Studies have shown that people spend more time, and are willing to spend more, on commercial streets that have green, growing things. Keeping the tree pits clean and free of trash is not just neighborly. It’s good business as well.

Related Posts

Tree Pits are not Dumpsters, November 18, 2007
The Daffodil Project Plantings on Cortelyou Road, November 4, 2007
1,000 Daffodils for Cortelyou Road, October 27, 2007
The Daffodil Project: Grief & Gardening #5, November 26, 2006

Links

The Daffodil Project

Sunday: Bonus Daffodil Planting on Beverly Road

Sunday morning there will be additional Daffodil planting along Beverly Road. I’ve been in correspondence with a neighbor, Natasha, from Beverly Square East. She wrote me earlier today:

This is just a quick note to let you know that I’m planning to plant Daffodils on Sunday 11/11 starting at 10am. I’ll be meeting some friends on Beverley between 16th and 17th street. We’re going to start at 16th Street and head towards Flatbush. I borrowed some extra planting implements from a friend, so people should feel free to come even if they don’t have tools.

So Sunday you have two opportunities for planting Daffodil bulbs. Meet at 10am on Beverly Road between 16th and 17th Street; planting will proceed east along Beverly Road. Or meet at 10am at the library plaza on Cortelyou Road at Argyle; planting will proceed west toward Coney Island Avenue.