Blooming daffodils mark the arrival of spring in Bandon

WHILE the coronavirus has been running rampant in the country the farming community and other primary producers have been nurturing and tending to their crops.

For instance, Brian Perrott of West Cork Daffodils, Little Silver, Bandon is always first to the market with his delightful daffodils. At the first sign of the green stalks and the daffodils ‘fluttering and dancing in the breeze,’ as the poet Wordsworth once described them, we know that spring has arrived.

What a wonderful sight to see thousands and thousands of daffodils ‘in sprightly dance’ signalling to all that the winter season has come and gone!

The coming of Covid-19 in March 2020 cut short the daffodil season last year, but it seems it did not deter some visitors to Little Silver from helping themselves to flowers and bulbs at Brian Perrott’s expense. While West Cork Daffodils is very supportive of the annual Daffodil Day in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, it cannot ignore what was happening.

Speaking in 2020, Brian Perrott stated that ,‘in recent times, people have overstepped the boundary, by taking more than is welcome. Taking the flower bulbs is stealing. We are very upset that people decided to take bulbs from the ground. It is an act of stealing.

‘As a result of people stealing the bulbs, the fields are not open to the public, and any unauthorised persons in the field will be prosecuted. I am trying to run a business, and this has gone too far.

‘The situation is no different from going into another field and taking another farmer’s barley, oat, or corn crop. The field is private property. It is not open to the public, the products are not free,’ said Brian last year.

Let’s hope that the integrity of Brian Perrott’s business is not compromised again this year. The daffodils that Brian and his team nurture at Little Silver are available to buy in the local shops and are a welcome sight.