DAFFODIL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION. 



337 



well in a more retentive soil than suits most trumpets. Maximus, 

 pallidas, and minor prefer a light soil, and heavy beds must be 

 mixed with rock gravel for them, or some similar material. Leaf- 

 mould favours leaf growth rather than flower, and should be 

 added sparingly. All the whites do well in peat, or soil of that 

 character. They increase less quickly in it, but continue healthy. 

 The stronger and taller varieties of all kinds should have a 

 sheltered but not shaded situation ; even there violent gales 

 break not only scapes but leaves. I filled several vases with 

 flowers broken clean off at the ground-line by the gale of last 

 Easter Monday. The only remedy is tying up, to which I am 

 obliged to resort in more exposed places. Daffodils like to see 

 the sun. They flower as well in the shade their first season, but 

 need sunlight for the leaves whilst forming the embryo flower for 

 the following year. A favourite spot for them is the angle at 

 the base of a steep bank or rockery, where it joins the level. This 

 preference is most marked, and they keep their flowering 

 qualities longer in such places without being moved. They 

 always do well planted against large half-buried stones, either on 

 a rockery or at the edge of raised beds. When planted in grass 

 they seem never to suffer from disease, and continue for many 

 years without much increase ; but the kinds selected for this 

 must be those for which the natural soil is suited, and the grass 

 must not be mown until the leaves are dead, not earlier than the 

 end of June. Bulbs casually collected by tourists or guides are 

 generally dug up and dried off when in flower ; this may be 

 known by the large quantity of loose husk which surrounds 

 them. Such bulbs will not flower the next season, but start into 

 growth directly they are replanted ; therefore, in order that the 

 leaves may not become too long before winter, they should be 

 kept out of the ground late, say until October. Those lifted a 

 little before the leaves are ripe flower earlier than others, but the 

 flowers are less fine. Bulbs transferred from a warmer to a 

 colder climate flower earlier the first season than those which 

 have been longer in cultivation in the colder climate. 



No kind of animal pest ever injures my Daffodils under- 

 ground — the Narcissus fly (Merodon) is unknown in my garden — 

 but the bulbs are very subject to a kind of rot, for which I have 

 long sought the cause and the remedy. The mischief is done 

 the season before it appears. The leaves come up at the end of 



