Did you know that Charlotte once had a “Daffodil Man”?

I didn’t, until I read about him in one of Elizabeth Lawrence’s articles for The Charlotte Observer.

His name was William “Badger” Pride. Every spring for nearly seven decades, he sold fresh-cut daffodil bunches. Badger could be found downtown almost every day—on East Morehead Street, McDowell Street, Providence Road or South Kings Drive.

Elizabeth interviewed Badger for her Feb 20, 1960 article “Season Is Signaled By The Daffodil Man”. When she asked him how long he had been selling daffodils, he replied, “Well, you can figure it. I’m fifty one, and I’ve been selling them since I was big enough to count money.” Some days he sold as many as 75 bunches from coffee cans set in the trunk of his car or on the back of his pick-up truck. Badger’s daffodil season began in early February and lasted through the end of April.

Picking all those daffodils was a family affair. In 1960, Badger’s wife Annie, and their two boys, William and James, helped with the harvest from their 10-acre farm on Idlewild Road.

My curiosity about Badger and his farm got the best of me, so I did a little bit of digging. The only other article I found about him was his obituary, which mentions all four of his children (he and Annie had two daughters as well). I know that all bulbs are “tenacious of life” (as Theophrastus wrote). I have had personal experience rescuing very old plantings of daffodils from the woods across the street from my house… before the land was cleared and four new houses built. It took the spindly foliaged daffs three years to build up enough energy to bloom again.

I found out where Badger’s farm was. According to public records, the last seven acres of it were sold in September 2021. I wondered if there were any daffodils left on the land. Last Sunday, I went for a visit.

It was obvious the place has been abandoned for some time. I was charmed by the quaintness of the small house, and imagined Badger and Annie raising their four children there. A few dilapidated outbuildings showed signs of previous owners, including some remnants of farming equipment. In front of the house, a large Camellia japonica was loaded with blooms—it represented so much life in the midst of such a quiet place. It reminded me of the old thing about if a tree falls in the woods with no one to hear it, does it make a sound? That camellia has lived there, and bloomed there, for decades.

Most of the property is covered in what appears to be a 20-ish year old canopy of deciduous trees and pines. Dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of clumps of daffodils dot the land beneath. I was surprised (although I shouldn’t have been) that many of the clumps had flower buds coming up. I stood in awe, with a smile on my face, thinking of how those bulbs were divided every fall and reset by Badger for so many years. I wonder what blooms will come this spring. I will definitely be going back to visit very soon.