On a country road in Douglas County, Missouri, thousands and thousands of daffodils line the lane on both sides for a mile and a half. Thanks to the efforts of two men, Hershell Letsinger and Delbert Scrivner, these flowers have been appearing in the springtime since the early 1990s – and will more than likely keep appearing for years to come.
Hershell recalled a time back in the early 1990s, and said, “My brother-in-law lived at Ozark and he said there was a road up there that somebody had planted daffodils along, maybe a quarter-mile, and I drove by there and saw them and I thought, ‘Hey, that’s neat!’ So it inspired me.” He began planting shortly after that trip.
He added, “We went by the old place where Delbert was born, and there were a lot of daffodils there and I got permission to go down there and dig bulbs and we started planting them along the road.” By we, he means his wife, Barbara, and others. Barbara said, “I didn’t help a whole lot, but I helped some. The grandkids got in on it, and the hired hand and whoever was around.” Hershell and Barbara had a dairy farm for 45 years, and Delbert and his wife, Kay, live down the road from them. Delbert worked for the city of Mansfield and raised cattle, while Kay worked as a teacher.
Hershell explained the daffodil-planting process: “We finally worked out a little system. Barbara would get on the tractor and we’d put a big pipe out from the tractor and she’d drive along the road and I’d hold an old single shovel plow and make a rut for them to plant in. We’d plant them about four- to six-inches apart.”
Delbert reckons he started planting in 1995, after seeing the results of Hershell’s efforts. Unlike Hershell, he plants daffodils in the spring and does each one by hand. He said, “Most people plant in the fall, but I plant in the spring. One reason I don’t like to plant in the fall because the ground is real hard. If you got to dig ‘em up, it’s hard diggin’ and if you have to plant ‘em in the fall, it’s hard diggin’!”
Delbert’s and Hershell’s families farmed in the vicinity. Hershell reminded Delbert, “We moved to Grandpa’s old place over in ’42. I’ve been around since you [Delbert] have been around. We went to school together, with six of these boys [a reference to Delbert and his five brothers] and we were able to get into a little trouble.” The men attended Mountainside School.
Delbert was born in a farmhouse down the road from his present home. Part of his current house is the original building that his dad later moved up the hill, because “for some reason, Dad wanted to be on that crossroads. That way, anybody who hauled milk or the mail, he could get that. When he moved over there, he could get the Mansfield or Ava mail.”
About growing up near each other, besides getting in a little trouble, they also picked a bit. Delbert said, “We played a little bit of music together.”
Hershell said, “If you could call it that.”
Delbert continued, “I remember you had that tater bug mandolin. I thought that was the neatest thing.”
Hershell said, “I’ve still got that. Somebody gave that to Mom when she was just a girl and said that she’d call for it sometime; well, she never did. Mom was a little over a hundred when she died.”
Most of the daffodils have been transplants from either Delbert’s homeplace or from another site that he owns, that has an old milk barn and used to have a trailer on it. The men think that the transplants are hardier than the store-bought ones, and Hershell added, “I’m chintzy.”
Delbert said, “I haven’t had much luck with the others. I don’t know if it’s because they’re hybrids. One place I worked and worked and worked and dug out some old soil. I put better dirt in there, and I was at Walmart and saw several different colors of daffodils, and they had some red and yellow in it. … That next year, there might have been one or two like the picture of the ones I bought. … Every year it got sorrier and sorrier and sorrier. They’re gone now. It’s been my luck with the ones I’ve ordered.”
About the effort to plant from the top of the road near the Brush Arbor Church to their homes and a bit beyond, Delbert laughed and said perhaps he should have slowed down a little bit, because at the rate Hershell was going, both sides would have been planted without Delbert lifting a finger.
Delbert didn’t stop with the roadsides, where sometimes he would do double and triple rows for visibility; he also planted daffodils around several rocks and a horse-drawn rake in his yard.
Hershell planted a daffodil design on a slope that used to clearly read, “Got Milk.” He explained, “We milked for 45 years and you’d see these ‘Got Milk?’ on bumper stickers and I thought, ‘That’d be kinda neat.’”
He continued, “A friend of mine drove by there and stopped, and he said to me, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa – those flowers are talkin’!” The daffodil sign spread out over the years as the plants spread their bulbs, making it difficult to read these days.
Why daffodils? Hershell said, “I’m a philosopher of low maintenance and I don’t think there’s anything more low maintenance than daffodils. I rode horses with friends for years and we’d go through the national forests south of Ava and you’d see daffodils from years and years and years ago. … They’re survivors.”
Daffodil Planting Tips from the Dudes
Neither man is planning to plant any more daffodils. When asked about tips for planting daffodils, they offered the following advice:
- When you plant in the spring, you know where to dig. (Delbert)
- Find you a neighbor that will do it for you! (Delbert)
- Three or four deep inches is ideal. It’s better to stick the top (the end of the bulb where the leaves will sprout) up. (Hershell)
Delbert added, “The worst thing I’ve seen is when you dig it, and you’ve got that nice soft spot, and here comes an armadillo. They won’t eat it, but they’re just digging in there for bugs.”
Hershell laughed and said, “They’ll let you do the hard digging.”
If you’d like to see the daffodils, they are along Douglas county road B-514. To get there, start at MO Hwy B just south of US Hwy 60 outside of Mansfield, MO. Go west on B from where it intersects Mo Hwy 5 South, just west of Mansfield; B then makes a sharp turn south about 1 ¼ miles from that intersection. Follow B south for about 5 ¾ miles from that sharp turn to B-514 – the Brush Arbor Church is at the northwest corner of that junction. Turn west on B-514 and enjoy the daffs!
