On March 28th of the year 1899 the golden yellow 
trumpet daffodil King Alfred received a First Class 
Certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society of 
England, the highest honor that august body could 
bestow on any flower. Now, fifty years later, untold 
millions of King Alfred bulbs are produced annually. 
Here, on the Pacific Coast some thousand acres of 
fertile land are planted to this variety, accounting for 
more than fifty million bulbs. The number of bulbs that 
have been forced and destroyed by the commercial 
florists all over the world must be measured in the 
billions. 
King Alfred is, undoubtedly, the most popular daffodil 
of our day. It has been that for the past twenty years 
and it may well remain at the top of the list for another 
twenty years. Since it first made its appearance, thou- 
sands of other daffodils have been named and intro- 
duced. Most of them have again disappeared, but grad- 
ually a few are emerging that show every sign of having 
attained, like King Alfred, a more or less permanent 
standing. That our firm has been instrumental in bring- 
ing many of these outstanding novelties before the 
American public is no less a matter of pride to us than 
the fact that many of the popular varieties of today have 
been raised by the de Graaffs. 
Like anything, a daffodil collection must never become 
stagnant or it will become no more than a lifeless gath- 
ering, of historical value only. New varieties must be 
added; older and obsolete ones must be eliminated. 
This work, the selecting, judging and scoring of new and 
old daffodil varieties, has been our main Spring activity 
for over twenty years. 
Nature in its inexhaustible richness is constantly add- 
ing new forms and colors to those already in existence. 
The past spring gave us a large group of new lemon- 
colored daffodils. Of very recent acquisition are also 
flowers of what we might call “reverse” coloring, the 
cup or trumpet being lighter than the perianth segments. 
A few years ago it was the new pinks that attracted 
the attention of all daffodil lovers. They still are of great 
importance and our collection of them is second to none. 
Many of our new pinks are sweet-scented; many of them 
have a unique pure rose coloring. We have literally 
dozens of new seedlings of our own raising that because 
of their unusual earliness or lateness will become most 
Pace 14 
valuable garden and show plants. We are building up 
stocks of all these novelties, but do not, as yet, offer 
them to the trade. 
We acknowledge the fact that our collection of daffo- 
is made on the basis of our personal selection and taste. 
As the grandson of Simon Adrian de Graaff (1840- 
1911) raiser of Glory of Leiden, Apricot and Madame 
de Graaff and the son of William Hendrik de Graaff, 
who raised Aerolite, Alasnam, February Gold and many 
other popular daffodils, I may, I hope, lay claim to an 
inherited taste for daffodils. I have grown up with them 
and have loved them for some forty years. Enthusiasm 
tempered by critical appraisal, love controlled by experi- 
ence and knowledge have helped to make this collection. 
We take pride in offering it to you. 
I have keyed the daffodils in various ways. There is 
the obvious system of classification, as proposed by the 
Royal Horticultural Society of England. The figures 
and letters before each name indicate to which division 
the flower belongs. Secondly, the descriptions I have 
made up for all varieties should be a guide to their value 
for various purposes. The awards listed are also an 
indication of the value put on these daffodils by com- 
petent judges. Finally, there is a most obvious clue to 
the contemporary value of these daffodils in the prices 
quoted for each variety. 
Price is based on intrinsic value, on beauty and use- 
fulness, on the rate of propagation and on the relative 
scarcity of the plant. Other factors likewise enter into 
this equation and it must not be presumed that a daffo- 
dil selling for one dollar each is ten times as good in 
every respect as one that sells for ten cents per bulb. 
Time alone can give us a clue to the true relative values 
of these bulbs. 
The revised system of classification should be used 
by every seedsman and at all daffodil shows. While it 
does simplify matters slightly to have eliminated one 
class, namely the Leedsii, we must always remember 
that these classifications are of horticultural value only 
and that in most instances they are not based on true 
botanical differences. Hence, no one could object if for 
bulb-catalog purposes the two medium-cupped classes 
are combined, nor should there be any objection if the 
Triandrus, Cyclamineus and the species daffodils are 
all grouped together as “Daffodils for the Rock Garden.” 
