Every town has one or two. If you're lucky, there may be half a dozen houses with breathtaking fields of daffodils, which make you take scenic detours this time of year. In Salisbury, CT, one of the most stunning roadside attractions belongs to Inge Heckel, the former president of the New York School of Interior Design, who inherited her daffodils when she bought her 1797 house a few years ago. "I consider myself their caretaker," says Heckel who remembers seeing the daffodil field some 40 years ago when she first visited Salisbury. She was told that the family who owned the house from 1939 to 1995 planted 1,000 daffodils every fall—you do the math—and Heckel has planted some more bulbs from White Flower Farm. "We had to fill in some spots!" she says, adding that she has counted 19 varieties on her property. Does she fertilize her fields? "No, no, no, no!" she says emphatically. "I just leave them alone. We don't mow the field until the end of July—never earlier!"
The Daffodil House, April 29, 2009
