DOUBLES OF ALL GROUPS I99 



pulled up and thrown away — means the loss of its cost — 

 and people are not inclined to throw away money — we 

 therefore do not get the percentage of ideal double unburst 

 trumpets in our Double Van Sions — that we did a few 

 years back. 



It is almost amusing when you complain to a foreign 

 bulb grower about his strain of "Double Van Sions" to 

 hear his explanations diplomatically put, but in substance : 

 If forced: "you gave them too much heat or too soon," if 

 in the open: "your climate it is too hot and the sun too 

 bright." They will never admit anything wrong in their 

 strains, but insinuate that the grower has actually brought 

 into being such types of flowers by cultural mismanagement. 

 And yet I know of double trumpet daffodils in old gar- 

 dens that have annually produced flowers with unburst 

 trumpets for many years, regardless of the too sudden 

 change from winter into summer. ' 



Another vagary of the Double Van Sion is its tendency 

 to produce flowers tinged with green and sometimes almost 

 all green. 



I do not know that any scientific explanation of the 

 reason, nor a remedy, has ever been advanced. A few 

 years ago I visited a Guernsey narcissus farmer who had 

 removed his wares to Virginia — he had about two acres 

 of Double Van Sion, the flowers of which were as green 

 as grass although the bulbs, being unsalable, had remained 

 undisturbed for three years. Mentioning the circumstance 

 to an expert in the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 an effort was made to solve the riddle but to no good 

 result. A reputable Holland bulb grower finally trans- 

 fered the bulbs to Dutch soil saying that in two years the 

 flowers would become as ''yellow as gold." Of course 

 this does not explain why southern forms of Double Van 

 Sion "go green" and then grow out of it under different 

 conditions. The moral however is : If you get a good strain 

 of golden-yellow Double Van Sion that produces flowers 



