William Wordsworth would be proud. Thanks to Camp Fire First Texas and Streams and Valleys, residents of Fort Worth soon, and perhaps a century from now, will be able to dance with a host of daffodils along the banks of the Trinity River.
As part of its celebration of its centennial year - the first Camp Fire groups in Fort Worth were established in 1914 - Camp Fire members plan to plant 25,000 bulbs along the Trinity River as part of a project that envisions Wordsworth's "a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils."
The bulbs can be planted by anyone regardless of age who can dig a small hole in the ground, meaning that hundreds of volunteers can participate in the river's beautification. The planting will take place Nov. 1-2. It is open to the public, although Camp Fire asks that participants register online. (Go to campfirefw.org and select Project Daffodil on the opening page.)
The Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation is underwriting what President Adelaide Leavens is calling "The Big Dig." Leavens is the former executive director of Streams and Valleys and was both a Bluebird and a Camp Fire Girl. She's a member of the Centennial Committee and chair of Project Daffodil.
While the project honors Camp Fire's long history in the city, it meets a vision Leavens has had for years. It began after Hurricane Katrina when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to restrict the planting of trees along the Trinity River. "Working with a local donor and the City of Fort Worth Parks Department, we experimented with the idea of planting daffodil bulbs in the fall to bloom in the early spring," she said. "Enough years, enough volunteers and enough bulbs, and our Trinity River could be a blanket of yellow and white every year."
The bulbs come from The Southern Bulb Co. in Golden, Texas, where owner Chris Wiesinger refers to himself as "The Bulb Hunter."
"Some are your typical large trumpet varieties, and they are great because they catch people's eye immediately the following spring and help gain community support," Wiesinger said.
"However, I always insist that we throw some of the heirlooms in the mix," he said. "These heirlooms, such as the campernelle, have been collected from old homesites where they have grown on their own in Texas even once those sites were abandoned." He knows because he spent years collecting them himself after college.
The plants are initially slower to grow but are able to withstand the Texas climate on normal rainfall. "This will help ensure that future generations will enjoy massive clumps of golden, fragrant blooms for the next 100 years or more," Wiesinger said.
Camp Fire First Texas serves 22,000 youth, adults and child-care providers annually in Tarrant, Parker, Wise, Hood, Johnson and Denton counties.
