BELFAST, Maine — This month, daffodils have been popping up just about everywhere in the city of Belfast — from gardens to highway embankments, from parks to roads to the side of the Belfast Rail Trail.
That didn’t happen by chance.
The abundance of cheerful yellow flowers is the first installment of one local woman’s dream to plant a million daffodil bulbs in the city over the next 20 years. So far, Elisabeth Wolfe and a crew of volunteers who are participating in her 3-year-old Belfast Daffodil Project have planted more than 128,000 bulbs. And they’re just getting started.
“They make me laugh and they make me smile,” Wolfe said. “In this time of pandemic, it’s been a tightening, contracting time. And then I go out and see the flowers, and it just opens my heart and my mind to the love and joy we have in this community. And the beauty.”
The idea to plant all those flowers came to her when she went on a birdwatching trip to Virginia a few years ago. She drove past a field of daffodils and was struck by their beauty.
“I thought, wouldn’t this be great to do in Belfast?” she said.
She thought the plan had merit. Daffodils look delicate but are actually hardy plants that can grow in lots of different types of soil and which come back every year. They attract pollinators. Animals such as squirrels and deer rarely dig them up. Plus, there was another reason that appealed to her.
