When Mount Hope Cemetery was dedicated in 1838, it was right at the beginning of the Victorian era. It was a time when cemeteries became like parks; people would stroll, socialize, picnic and spend time with deceased loved ones.
Bill Whitney, 76, who has come to be known as The Daffodil Man, has sparked that springtime spirit at Rochester’s historic municipal cemetery where luminaries like Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass are buried.
A retired landscape architect, Whitney, together with his partner, Mykel Whitney, and scores of volunteers, have planted more than 70,000 daffodils in small swath of the 196-acre cemetery. The yellow flowers ring an amphitheatre-like kettle, where they are interspersed with mature trees and various monuments.
The area is abuzz with volunteers sprucing up the area and visitors enjoying the early spring blooms.
Here’s the story behind The Daffodil Project and how you can enjoy the flowers while they last.
How Bill Whitney became The Daffodil Man
After his mother passed, Bill Whitney wanted to make his own final arrangements. Bill and Mykel enjoyed going to old cemeteries, in part to explore the decorative arts on the monuments and how they’ve changed over time.
They decided on two plots in Mount Hope Cemetery in the bottom of a deep depression called a kettle. It was formed in the landscape 20,000 years ago, formed by glacier that crossed over Rochester as it moved north.
They bought the plots in 2018 and soon after they installed a fairly large monument engraved with “Whitney” and “Nothing gold can stay,” a line from a poignant Robert Frost poem.
After that, Bill Whitney’s landscape architecture background kicked in, and he got permission from federal, state and local officials to restore and beautify the kettle.
“It just came to me,” he said. “It just sort of happened. I just can’t help myself.”
Whitney had maps that reflected what the area looked like in the 1800s, and they reflected that the kettle had eroded over time. Using a wheelbarrow, grub hoe and spade, he cut blocks of soil and stacked them to restore some of the slope back to what it would have been. It was back breaking work, he said. Bill and Mykel also planted 1,000 daffodil bulbs in the area that year.
In 2019, the city surprised him with 5,000 daffodil bulbs to plant. “I freaked,” he said. But the football team and coaches from McQuaid Jesuit High School pitched in, planting alongside them for two days.
“I thought, ‘oh, wow, that’s good,” Bill Whitney said. “Everything sort of happened from there.”
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress, but in 2022 he formed a 501(c)(3) charitable organization called The Daffodil Project at Mount Hope Cemetery. That year, a story by David Andreatta in City Newspaper and a WXXI radio interview on “Connections with Evan Dawson” brought attention to the effort.
“All kinds of energy came at me,” he said. “Basically I’ve been reacting to all of the excited energies coming at me.”
The project has brought volunteers to work on landscaping and plant bulbs. Among the groups that have pitched in: fifth graders from 5th graders Anna Murray-Douglass Academy School 12; students from Edison Career & Technology High School; RIT students, including the women’s hockey team; and a group from the University of Rochester. “It’s just amazing,” Bill Whitney said. “It’s becoming an educational tool, too.”
The Whitneys are documenting the efforts so that people in future eras will know the story of how the daffodils came to be.
“I’m hoping this excitement keeps on going and going,” Whitney said. “It’s very humbling. I didn’t intend this but the excitement is just incredible. You always see people smiling.”
He hopes the area becomes the scene of Victorian-style picnics. The prospect of the activity around the kettle and the Whitney monument brings him comfort.
“I always know there will be a lot of people running around in spring and the essence of people will make me happy,” he said.
How to visit The Daffodil Project at Mount Hope Cemetery
Mount Hope Cemetery is open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily; the office closes at 3:30 p.m.
From the South Gate Entrance off Mount Hope Avenue, turn right onto Fifth Avenue and then left onto Grove Avenue. The daffodils are planted along First Avenue to help guide visitors toward the area with the daffodils. Daffodils typically bloom through late April.
Visitors should park alongside roads, leaving room for cars and funeral processions. More visitor guidelines and a map can be found at cityofrochester.gov.
The Fourth Annual Daffodil Days Celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 25 and 26. It will have guided tours, expert lectures and traditional music from a Scottish small pipe quartet. Find more information at daffodilprojectroc.org/events.
Food and drink reporter Tracy Schuhmacher also enjoys visiting old cemeteries. Email her at Tracys@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Thousands of daffodils are blooming at Mount Hope Cemetery. How to see them
Reporting by Tracy Schuhmacher, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
