Protecting a legacy of beauty
Redding woman buys, maintains daffodil field
Stacey Steinmetz was moved by the legacy of her former neighbor to preserve his charming daffodil field and keep it away from builders who might have destroyed it.
The field, located on a Cross Highway property, has been around for decades and is one of the few
“town treasures,” according to Steinmetz, a 20-year Redding resident.
When the previous owner, Henry “Bud” McQuade died in 2019, she feared his decades-long work cultivating the beautiful field would be dismantled if someone bought and built something on the land.
“I really wanted to make sure it was preserved, that nobody else would build there, destroy the field,” she said.
Steinmetz had become friendly with McQuade over the years. She recalled the 103-year old Air Force veteran to be a “local celebrity” of sorts. McQuade lived in Redding for years after he inherited the land from his family and taught science classes at Joel Barlow
High School.
“He would sit outside on his little bench by the daffodils and welcomed everyone to his field,” Steinmetz said, noting previous students of his and community members would pop over to visit him frequently.
But beyond teaching students about oceanography and the likes of it, he spent years planting his daffodil legacy – an heirloom that blooms for just a
few weeks every year between April and May.
McQuade’s niece, Patricia Pavlick, said the daffodils meant so much to her uncle Bud. When he took over the land, he and his wife Florence had some daffodils on the property, but it wasn’t until after her death that Bud really started
growing the field.
Florence loved flowers, according to Pavlick, and when she died, McQuade took to the field and started planting more bulbs, meticulously logging how many he transplanted until his daffodils numbered in the thousands.
“He planted daffodils in the field and that’s why he wanted more and more, he did it in her memory,” she said.
“I’m delighted that we have
someone so special taking care of them for him,” she added.
When Steinmetz heard about McQuade’s death, she decided to ask his family if they would sell her his property, and they did. She now owns the 3-acre gem and has made the 40,000 odd-some daffodils a special place for her mother.
“I felt really happy I secured the property and it was a great opportunity for me to have my mother close to me,” she said.
Billie Jean de Gruchy, Steinmetz’s mother, agreed and said “it’s all in bloom and it’s gorgeous.”
“It was really lovely. This is what he did, he allowed people to come here and we want that tradition to go on.”
And as the daffodils continue blooming through May, the field is getting plenty of visitors. In Steinmetz’s plans to expand the field’s accessibility, she is looking to pay homage to Bud by building a small
memorial for him with a plaque.
Steinmetz said she also wants to make the field an “all-seasonal” attraction in town by hosting some events there and maybe putting our picnic tables for people to come pass the time at.
“It’s a work in progress,” she said, noting it’s “it’s been here for 50 years from prior generations,” and she intends to make sure it’s “here for future generations.”