My theory is that daffodils are on the side of the road for several reasons:

- someone planted them there to beautify the roadside (they are not native, of course)
- they came in with some dirt that was relocated
- that area used to be someone's home/farm, etc.

Technically you can not dig them up - that is private or state property (all property belongs to someone). But if you did get daffodils from somewhere (like an old homesite that you get permission to dig on), yes they will survive. These little bulbs are incredibly hardy. But so are daffodils that you buy in the store.

Did you see that article in the AJC Living section today about that guy that digs up old bulbs and propagates them?

Anyway, all you have to do is get permission.

The Garden Clubs of Georgia, Inc. member clubs purchase and donate thousands of Daffodils each year to the DOT for planting along roadsides for beautification. Not sure if the ones you observed near you home are some of those or if, as mentioned, they arose from a different source.
I doubt that the DOT, for safety reasons, would allow anyone or any organization, to plant anything on the public ROW adjacent to a highway or other public thoroughfare.

Beautification and preservation of native Flora along roadsides is an ongoing objective of the state garden club organization. This year, as in each year of recent memory, the state garden club organization, in cooperation with other ecological organizations, is battling the billboard industry at the Capitol, to preserve the trees on public lands. The billboard industry wants the right to remove those trees, so that their ubiquitous for-profit signs can distract motorists. They are only willing to pay a pittance for each tree removed.
Sadly, for various reasons (some which are suspicious to me), many State Senators and Representatives agree with the billboard industry.
If you prefer to see flowers and greenery along roadsides, as you travel, then you may want to become actively involved.
I yield the soapbox!
Rb

Razorback, directing this to you, hoping you'll start a new thread about the efforts of the Garden Clubs of Georgia and their anti-billboard agenda. I'm not at all up to date on current doings. Remember several years ago when they (GCG) effectively and aggressively opposed the tree cutting and the billboards themselves.

I think that many of us who participate in the Georgia Gardener forum could/would add their voices to this.

Rosie, in Sugar Hill

The daffodils that I was referring too, do not seem to have been planted on purpose. They are scattered irregulary (sp?) all over the place, some in clumps of hundreds of flowers, and others with just 2 or 3 blooms. Because there is no rhyme or reason to them, I assumed they were simply wild daffodils that found there way there naturally over time.

Re: Daffodils, store bought or not

I agree with esh ga that daffodils are generally a hardy lot. However, those of us in the warmer sections of the country--Zones 7B and higher--need to be careful in selecting daffodil cultivars for the landscape. Not all daffodils are reliably perennial in our climate. Two excellent cultivars for the South are 'Ice Follies' and 'Carlton.' These cultivars and a number of others come back dependably year after year.

However, my favorite daffodil is the endearing little Lent Lily (_Narcissus pseudonarcissus_) that was brought over by the earliest British colonists--the "wild" daffodil that marks the sites of the vanished homesteads and gardens of our Southern ancestors. Along with Roman hyacinths (_Hyacinthus orientalis var. albulus_), the Campernelle narcissus (_Narcissus x odorus_), and snowdrops, or snowflakes, (_Leucojum aestivum_), the Lent Lily offers a delicate beauty that is missing from its modern horticultural counterparts.

I agree with others who have said to get permission before digging up these roadside treasures. We live in the country and have had a recent problem with plant thieves digging into a bed of spider lilies (_Lycoris radiata_) planted a little too close to the road. The plant thieves stole one clump of bulbs and left another clump lying on the ground. I assume the thievery was interrupted by a passerby. This happened while the bulbs were blooming in late August or September, so I rescued them and planted them temporarily in a large nursery pot where they put up their foliage. I plan to replant them somewhere else a little farther from the road.

Old House Gardens would be one good mail-order source for Lent Lilies, or "wild" daffodils, and other heirloom bulbs. They have a fine Website and an excellent reputation. Brent and Becky's Bulbs is another excellent source for hundreds of daffodils and other bulbs. They, too, have a fine Website and an excellent reputation. The Southern Bulb Company is a third excellent source for heirloom bulbs. The Southern Bulb Company also has a fine Website and an excellent reputation.

But please don't dig without first getting permission. As a passionate gardener with a sentimental attachment to many of my plants, I was quite distressed upon discovering the theft of our spider lilies that originally came from my grandmother's garden and, no doubt, ultimately from an older Southern garden than hers. They are a living link to my Southern horticultural heritage.

Thanks for reminding me of the names, jay. I figured I had the Campernelles after there was an article in the AJC. They are my favorite. Good looking, sweet smelling and they look good even after that bit of cold and light snow (we only got 1/2 inch). Some of the other types are still drooping.

I also have some very late blooming white ones that have multiple blooms per scape. Small flowers. I got most of mine from sites being developed (yes, I had permission).

esg ga, your late-blooming white bulb flowers may be what we call the 'May Narcissus,' which is considered the last narcissus to flower in the springtime in the Southeast. It is an heirloom variety that is listed on the Old House Gardens Website, where they include a number of its common names, e.g., 'Twin Sisters,' but do not include our local common name, 'May Narcissus.' Although we call it the 'May Narcissus,' it blooms in April and will be found at old Southern homesites and along the roadside. We have another old-fashioned bulb flower that we call the "candlestick narcissus" that is very uncommon. Its common name comes from its very short yellow trumpet surrounded by comparatively long radiating petals. It is reminiscent of a candlestick.

jay, I'm pretty sure my late blooming ones are all white; I'll have to take a picture of them when they bloom. Do you know what this one is? It has the gray-green foliage like the Lent Lily (as opposed to the dark green foliage like the Campernelle).

esh ga, I'm sorry, but I don't know its name; however, it looks a lot like a daffodil we collected from the yard of an old tenant house on an adjoining farm a number of years ago. For want of a better name, we dubbed it the 'Ruby Daffodil,' in honor of Ms. Ruby Ladd, who was one of the last occupants of the house.