Winter flowers in Japan: Daffodils

There are daffodils that bloom in winter as well as daffodils that bloom in spring. The winter daffodils are normally in full bloom by now, but they are late to bloom this year. Last week I went to my usual daffodil spot and there were only a handful in bloom, one of which is pictured below. This in stark contrast to last year when there were already more than 50% in bloom in December.

One of Saitama's famous flower parks, Gongendo Park, usually have a daffodil festival in January annually. However, this year they have cancelled the festival due to the poor condition of the flowers. They also noted that the daffodils are very late to bloom this year and suspect that the warmer than usual autumn is responsible. 

Daffodils are called 'Suisen' in Japanese, but 'suisen' is also used for Narcissus flowers and Bunch Daffodils too. 'Suisen' is written in katakana mostly, but there is a kanji too – 水仙. There is a specific word for daffodils (as opposed to narcissus) “rappa suisen”, but I don’t think it is used very often. Daffodils is the flower of January 16th and February 9th, 16th and March 1st. 

Have you seen any daffodils yet this year? Hopefully the spring daffodils will be in better condition than the winter ones!