4 
BARR’S Gold Medal Daffodils, 1897. 
Extract from the “Westminster Gazette,” 12th April, 1897. 
HOLLAND IN SURREY. 
A SUGGESTION FOR THE HOLIDAYS. 
Together with the anticipated pleasures of the Easter holidays, the small, hut very real, “holiday burdens” are- 
also approaching. One of these is always the great question as how to spend the holidays to best advantage. Those 
who have the time and the opportunity for "going away ” have probably by this time “ worried out ” some holiday 
haunt away from town which has the reputation for being suitable for Easter pleasurings. But those who stay at 
home, and can only take their ease at places whence they can get home the same evening, are still in the throes of 
holiday composition. It is to them that we would give a word of advice. Twenty minutes by rail from Waterloo, 
and ten minutes’ walk from Surbiton Station, a piece of Holland, when Holland is at its very best in springtime, 
has been conjured up, and we have no hesitation in saying that the prettiest and gladdest of spring sights in or near 
London ore the large bulb plantations of Messrs. Barr and Sons, at Surbiton. 
The river-side suburb itself is as pretty as any place near London; it is bursting into the green in every part, 
and its lanes and roads are perfect for cyclists as well as pedestrians. And there, amid the greenery, is spread out a 
most wonderful sight. Millions of great and glorious spring flowers are out in bloom. At one moment, as you 
walk along the road, you catch sight of a bed of a hundred thousand Daffodils (this is no figure of speech, but a fact) 
rising above their cool-green foliage, each blossom a perfect golden star. As a background to these, or to a great bed 
of gleaming yellow tulips, you have the exquisite foliage of acres of Chinese paeonies, with their tints of copper and 
bronze and deepest red. Again, it seems as if a piece of the blue sky had fallen upon the ground, where an army of 
sweet-scented grape hyacinths stands in serried ranks, or turning in yet another direction, your eye falls upon 
wonderful beds of early tulips, forming dazzling dreams of colour. 
But the Daffodils are best. There are between 500 and 600 varieties in this priceless collection at Surbiton ; a 
few are over, but for a week and more to come the show will be at its very best. Outside Haarlem and Leyden, 
where the Dutch hyacinths and other bulbous plants are now stretching away the carpet of their bloom to where the 
dunes shut out the sea, there is no such sight to be seen as that at Messrs. Barr and Sons’ nurseries at Surbiton. 
Lovers of Daffodils will be interested in the fact that among the new varieties which are this year brought out is 
a magnificent flower, appropriately named “ Victoria.” This is an even finer blossom than the large " Emperor,” 
and wears, like him, two shades of pure gold. The “Queen of Spain,” paler and smaller, is also fully out; the 
“Duchess of Westminster,” another very beautiful Daffodil, the “Gloria Mundi,” and the dainty, lily-like 
“ Mrs. Langtry,” and many others are in full bloom, and among the small fry there is none that is quainter than 
the little “ Hoop Petticoat,” while, for graceful form and colour, the “ Angel’s Tears” Daffodil stands unrivalled. 
There is a story attached to the name of the latter. Mr. Barr, senior, on one of his rambles in Spain, discovered 
the flower somewhere high up in the mountains, and gave bis lad orders to go and dig the bulbs up. The day was hot, 
and Angel (such was the youth's poetic name) shed copious tears at the idea of digging bulbs in the sun. Whereupon 
Mr. Barr, on sending home the bulbs, alluded to them jestingly as “Angel’s tears,” and the name has adhered to the 
Narcissus triandrus alias from that day forth. 
Extract from the “ Echo,” 3rd May, 1897. 
DAFFODILS. 
Some kindly soul, a render of The Echo, has sent me a bunch of Burr’s Daffodils. For classic elegance of form, 
delicacy of golden tones, and a certain pungent fragrance, suggestive of April sheen and shower, there is no flower 
not even the rose, can rival the Daffodil. So I put them with some of the blades in a vase in my open window, to 
refresh the eye of the wayfarer and enable me to enjoy the fragrance which a soft April breeze wafts in. 
These charming flowers have been in evidence since January. The consignments from the Continent were 
promptly followed by tons daily from the Scilly Islands. But the very choicest varieties are of later growth. In 
Messrs. Barr and Sons’ grounds at Long Dittou there are still thousands of blooms, many of them exquisitely 
beautiful. Among so many varieties, all of which are chastely beautiful, one may mention a few of the more 
strikingly handsome. “Victoria” is a new hardy variety, named in honour of the Jubilee. “ VVeardale 
Perfection” and ’’Glory of Leiden” are magnificent flowers. So, indeed, are the Emperor, Empress, and 
Sir.Watkin, Horsefieldi, Maximus and Golden Spur. Among the choicer “ Peerless” Daffodils one has flowers of 
most delicatebues, from white to pale primrose and orange. Leedsii Maria M. de Graaff, Leedsii Beatrice 
and “Princess of Wales,” are nearly white; the latter with a spreading cup elegantly frilled. Nothing can 
exceed in gracefulness and chasteness of golden tones these beautiful flowers for decorative purposes. But one 
cannot help admiring, too, that gem, the “Queen of Spain,” gathered wild by Mr. Barr during one of his rambles 
in Spain. There is mnch to see still in the 20 acres devoted to Daffodils at Long Ditton. 
Visitors Invited to see Barr s Daffodils In Bloom, March and April. 
