Nantucket is famous for its millions of gorgeous daffodils that bloom across our island from late March through May and for the Nantucket Daffodil Festival held year during the last weekend in April to celebrate the arrival of spring. Now through August, the Nantucket Garden Club is holding a raffle to raise funds to plant 50,000 more daffodil bulbs this autumn for the festival’s 50th anniversary in 2026. Club members are working with the Town of Nantucket to find appropriate locations for the mass plantings.
According to club member Mary Malavase, one of our island’s daffodil experts and a daffodil show judge here and at other shows around the country, this new planting will continue and stay true to Jean MacAusland’s vision. MacAusland started the Nantucket Daffodil Festival in 1974, to beautify our island and give Nantucket a spring boost. Then president of the Nantucket Garden Club, and a seasonal resident of the island since 1951, MacAusland chose daffodils because “they have long life and because deer and rabbits don’t eat them…It took her a few years to plant her goal of a million bulbs,” Malavase reminisced.
Because daffodils require a period of cold temperatures (a chilling period) to trigger their flowering cycle, the bulbs purchased from this Nantucket Garden Club Planting Fund will be put in the ground in November to bloom next spring.
Raffle tickets are just $10 each, and the prize is a beautiful 18″ x 15″ framed original oil painted by island artist G. S. Hill. The winning raffle ticket will be drawn on August 20, 2025. Raffle tickets are for sale now (cash or local check only) at the G.S Hill Gallery, 40 Straight Wharf.
