INTRODUCTION 
This is our twelfth iris catalogue. A short daffodil list was issued in 1935, 
but this is our first to contain daffodil descriptions. Those who require sweep¬ 
ing superlatives fortified by elaborate colored illustrations would best look else¬ 
where, but those who are searching for lovely, uncommon, and permanently 
satisfying flowers will discover that this little booklet contains rather more 
than its full share. Each year a few of its listings are entirely new to horti¬ 
culture, while a considerable number of others are offered for the first time 
on the American continent. Among these last we must especially call at¬ 
tention to some of the magnificent daffodils raised in the Antipodes. These 
are grievous and expensive things to get into normal going after the abrupt 
reversal of seasons and the shock of climatic change to which they must be 
subjected. Many succumb, but once the survivors are fully established and 
acclimated we find among them some of the noblest plants we have, strik¬ 
ingly different from the better known beauties of Britain and Ireland, the 
best of them every bit as fine, and well adapted to our conditions. 
In our own little plot where Mr. Wister has jocularly (and too truly) 
said that we have everything planted three deep, they are interspersed among 
the irises pretty much all over the garden. The daffodils, not counting the 
tazettas or the serotinus group, flower for about four months, attaining a 
glorious peak before the irises have made much growth, then dying grad¬ 
ually away into the swelling crescendo of the latter flower which glorifies 
April, May, and June. Where space is limited this informal procedure works 
out very happily. 
The word “daffodil” has not met with a consistent usage in the English 
language. The daffodil of old John Parkinson and that of Wordsworth 
were quite different members of the genus. In this booklet we use the term 
in its broadest sense to mean any plant of the botanical genus Narcissus, 
daffodil and Narcissus thus having precisely the relation of the English 
word rose and the genus Rosa, with complete interchangeability. 
CULTURAL NOTES 
Daffodils— 
Although many people do not seem to realize it, the culture of daffodils 
is extremely easy and it is a barren garden in which properly chosen varie¬ 
ties will not endure and thrive. The great King Alfred, glorious as it is 
when well grown, is so complete a failure in many soils and districts that it 
has given daffodils in general a thoroughly undeserved bad name. The same 
holds for many of th e common florists’ varieties, which, adapted principally 
for forcing, have had far too wide distribution in gardens. The innumerable 
lovely kinds suitable for exhibition or adapted through their vigor and grace 
of habit for garden decoration, are a very different proposition. The hard, 
lifeless clay soils, hot sun, and dry atmosphere of Southern California offer 
in some ways greater obstacles to successful daffodil culture than are met 
with in most regions but even these can be successfully surmounted and 
some varieties, especially certain of the garden hybrids originated in the 
Antipodes, the Tazetta and Poetaz groups, and a few of the smaller wild 
Narcissi, do exceptionally well here. 
The principal requirement to be met is deep and thorough preparation of 
the soil. Powerful manures are unnecessary, even objectionable, though a 
soil richly fertilized for vegetables or some other crop of the previous year 
will give splendid results in the growing of exhibition flow r ers. For ordinary 
garden decoration and cutting not even this is necessary. The bulbs may be 
put almost anywhere in the borders that fancy dictates, remembering not to 
associate them with plants requiring heavy fertilizing and that few of them 
flower well in too much shade. 
A light dressing of bone meal or wood-ashes now and then, well raked in¬ 
to the soil, will be all the plant food asked for. 
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