NOTES FROM THE 1952 DAFFODIL SEASON 
As we begin these notes early in January of 
1953, another blooming season is just about to 
begin. As I start to write, I have before me a 
pot of N. bulbocodium x Nylon with buds starting 
to open; and others labeled N. minimus (I doubt if 
they are true N. asturiensis or minimus as they 
are larger in plant and flower than other bulbs 
I have of this species, this lot coming from im- 
ported stocks and giving evidence of having been 
crossed with some larger trumpet species) nearly 
ready to start opening. But it is with last year’s 
blooming period that we are concerned now. 
Each year the season is too short, and we are 
torn between the desire of attending local Daf- 
fodil shows, both to display our flowers, and to 
accommodate show officials who too often have 
difficulty in securing displays of modern Daf- 
fodils; and the need to be home to entertain 
visitors, look after checking and roguing fields 
of named varieties and most of all, keep watch 
on newly opening seedlings, and evaluate those 
which have bloomed before; in short, to rush 
madly about trying to do justice to a multiplicity 
of duties, and at the same time, enjoy to the full 
the few weeks to which we have looked forward 
for months. 
Much as we would like for it to be otherwise, 
Daffodils have their share of enemies, but incle- 
ment weather is often the chief bane of the 
fancier who is hybridizing or growing flowers 
for exhibition. Growing conditions were not al- 
together propitious in 1952, but after a series of 
severe winters, the more nearly normal winter 
was welcome. There were the usual sharp frosts 
in the fall, but insufficient to halt the blooming 
of Polyanthus Primroses and other flowers of the 
harclier clan. Damp mild weather continued until 
the first of January when the temperature 
dropped to about ten degrees below the freezing 
point and gave rise to fears that we might again 
be due for severe weather; but such was not the 
case, for there were comparatively few frosty 
nights after that date. There were two damaging 
frosts about the end of the season which sharply 
curtailed fruit crops, but Daffodils suffered little. 
Following its usual custom, N. asturiensis 
(minimus) opened first this time in late Decem- 
ber, the earliest on record, followed in a few 
days by N. bulbocodium x Nylon, a beautiful little 
white hoop-petticoat descended from one of the 
forms of N. bulbocodium monophyllus, and bear- 
ing some resemblance to it. The other parent, N. 
bulbocodium Romieuxii, came a bit later, and 
it too, is a delightful elfin flower carrying some 
of the sulphur lemon tones so much sought after 
in large trumpet varieties. These in turn were 
succeeded by N. cyclamineus, whose jaunty, 
spritely blossoms always strike a cheerful note, 
and give promise that the main Daffodil parade is 
on its way. Giving a profusion of perky little blos- 
soms somewhat less reflexed and larger than 
those of its parent, N. cyclamineus, a pot of 
MITE is most attractive, and it blooms about the 
same time as FEBRUARY GOLD which is ad- 
mirably suited for blooming indoors. 
Among the large flowered Daffodils grown in 
pots, CONTENT and TRUTH gave superb blooms 
as usual, and FAIRY DREAM and ROSTOV were 
very lovely, but these will be passed by to con- 
sider some of the later blooming species. N. tri- 
andrus albus is always delightful when well- 
grown, and one could wish that it were as easy 
to satisfy and as permanent as the average gar- 
den hybrid. N. juncifolius, and its near kin, N. 
rupicola are intriguing miniature jonquils, but 
one of the loveliest of all is N. watieri as grown 
in a box of perhaps 50 bulbs, with many pure 
white, fairly-like blossoms, like so many stars! 
In spite of there being little freezing weather, 
the temperature hovered in the thirties so much 
of the time that plant growth advanced but little 
for weeks after the turn of the year. None of the 
very early varieties came on until after the first 
of March in the open, unprotected field. The first 
blooms of FEBRUARY GOLD, MARCH SUN- 
SHINE, MITE, CIBOLA, SACAJAWEA, and FORE- 
SIGHT opened almost simultaneously. The ear- 
liest of the large golden yellow Daffodils with us, 
CIBOLA, is a flower of excellent keeping quali- 
ties. It has quite a broad, flat smooth perianth, 
and a large bell mouthed crown, broadly flanged, 
and reflexing as it develops. It should prove an 
excellent cut flower. Just as early, and also a 
large flower, SACAJAWEA, a FORTUNE x 
KIMBA derivative, is somewhat reminiscent of 
WHITELEY GEM, but twice as large and has 
preceded it in bloom here. Having somewhat more 
pointed perianth segments than FORTUNE, it is 
about the same size flower with clean yellow 
coloring, except for a wide band of orange red on 
the crown, 
While waiting for the first field blooms to 
open, we were enjoying some beautiful pot grown 
Daffodils, but one is never quite satisfied with 
only those grown under more or less controlled 
conditions, however perfect they are, for the call 
of the out-of-doors cannot be evaded by the true 
gardener! One only wishes that the flowering sea- 
son were longer! Counting some of the miniature 
species which we take indoors to open, there are 
about four months of continuous bloom, but the 
bulk of the large flowered garden varieties come 
and go within a period of six weeks, and in 
even less time some years. Even though the win- 
ter was comparatively mild, our season was a 
brief one this year; for once the flowers were well 
started opening, a succession of warm days 
brought on everything rapidly. Among the early 
flowers are some seedlings from MITE x MAL- 
VERN GOLD, one of which bears very perfect 
little blossoms with smooth flat perianths, and 
rather long, well balanced crowns, the flower be- 
ing of clear lemon yellow throughout. A good in- 
creaser and free bloomer, it comes with good 
poise on stiff yellow-green stems. This dainty 
star-like Daffodil has been named ESTRELLITA. 
FAIRY DREAM 
Another seedling from N. cyclamineus ancestry, 
the seed parent in this instance peing MAGNIFI- 
CENCE, a rich golden yellow flower, is ordinarily 
the first Daffodil to bloom exclusive of the spe- 
cies. A few orange cupped cyclamineus hybrids 
appeared where ROUGE and RUBRA were used 
as seed parents. PEPYS, TREWIRGIE, GOLDEN 
CYCLE, and PEEPING TOM are other delightful 
members of this clan, the first named being par- 
ticularly interesting and unique, but unfortu- 
nately, rather slow to increase. The most distinc- 
tive of all is the old, all but lost, CYCLATAZ, 
which would remind one of BERYL many times 
reduced in size, much deeper in color, and borne 
several blooms on a stem. This one is presumably 
not very hardy. 
We grew a number of the little Daffodils last 
year, and were much intrigued by the perfectly 
formed TANAGRA, a larger descendant of N. 
asturiensis. The jonquil family included several 
most delightful representatives, perhaps the fin- 
est of all being APRIL TEARS, which gives gen- 
erously its graceful stems carrying two to four 
exquisite pendulous blooms of clear yellow with 
slightly paler coronas. To the same coterie be- 
longs the somewhat paler and earlier blooming 
HAWERA, and the smaller PEASEBLOSSOM; and 
of quite different form but still most appealing 
are BEBOP, SUN DISC, and LABELLE, each a 
little jewel. Entirely different from these is HIA- 
WASSEE, a “Paper White” hybrid, which appears 
quite hardy but is not always a free bloomer— 
perhaps severe cold may be a deterrent to its 
flowering, as this season it performed better than 
ever before. 
Although we had anticipated flowers of excep- 
tional quality, they were not above average. Many 
of the red cups were especially fine and came 
with unusually long stems, due perhaps more to 
soil and situation than to weather. Never had we 
seen DIOLITE of better form and color, while 
BAHRAM and ROUGE had stems of exceptional 
length, the first coming in near perfect form and 
most. brilliant coloring, while the latter again 
demonstrated its unique color and floriferous- 
ness. NANKING and DERVISH are others carry- 
ing buff in the perianth and brick red in the 
crown. At its best, ROYAL RANSOM is truly su- 
perb and surpasses all others in these colors, but 
it is rather temperamental and difficult to in- 
crease. Seldom had we seen KRAKATOA so fine; 
its huge blooms were of better form than usual, 
and the coloring most brilliant. Grown as it 
came this year, it would be difficult to find a 
more striking flower for either the garden or the 
show bench. While it is rather more subject to 
burning than most others, for some years we 
have regarded ARDOUR as one of the most beau- 
tiful of the red cups with its large, very rounded, 
flat, rich yellow perianth, and saucer shaped 
crown of deep orange red. It has been one of the 
best for breeding. NIGERIA is always good and 
was better than usual this year, while CALIFOR- 
NIA GOLD stood out as a most striking flower 
with its bright yellow perianth and heavily frilled 
crown of solid rich deep orange red. Were it not 
for the long neck, it would stand near the very 
top in quality. Both ARMADA and CEYLON are 
examples of the strides being made by breeders, 
the former being of excellent quality and a most 
striking early blooming one, and the other is just 
about ideal in smoothness, finish, and brilliance. 
Both develop much of their color a few days after 
opening and hold it well, whereas most of those 
which open with high coloring tend to fade out. 
TINKER, SUDAN, and ROYAL MAIL are others 
of which we think highly. For garden display, 
RED RIBAND is one of the best, for, while not 
so finished in form and texture as the others men- 
tioned here, it is large, tall, a very profuse 
bloomer and good increaser, and the vivid orange 
contrasty band on the crown makes it quite strik- 
ing. Another prolific one is NARVIK, a flower of 
utmost refinement, and very brilliant with beau- 
tifully smooth medium sized blooms. The later 
yellow reds were somewhat variable this year, 
GARLAND having a light orange crown with 
deeper banded margin, whereas it usually comes 
with solid orange red. As it performed this sea- 
son it reminded one of a larger ARANJUEZ. 
TAMINO always gives very rounded flat smooth 
perianths with almost flat rich brick red crowns 
of near ideal exhibition form; and for intensity 
of coloring, both in the crown and perianth, IN- 
DIAN SUMMER has few equals. 
While there is still much room for improve- 
ment, it is a difficult matter to obtain better red 
cups than we already have. Where an advance is 
made in one quality, it is usual for other features 
not to match the best already available. A seed- 
ling described before and now tentatively named 
PARICUTIN, from KLINGO x ARDOUR, has a 
large saucer shaped crown of most intense fiery 
red coloring approaching that found in some of 
the red and white Daffodils. It came rather rough 
this year, and never has been as smooth as we 
would have liked, but appears to be an advance 
on the score of color. 
Those varieties having white perianths and 
colored crowns were rather better on the whole 
this year than some seasons, even the older va- 
riety LADY KESTEVEN, having retained its bril- 
liance for several days in warm sunshine. As 
usual, CRETE was one of the finest of this group, 
being possessed of a most beautiful rounded peri- 
anth of great substance, and a flat orange-red 
rimmed cup. OTRANTO is one of the larger ones 
of this type and its came exceptionally good this 
year. The flat crown of PAPRIKA is of solid or- 
ange. About the earliest to bloom of the good 
quality red and whites is MATAPAN, which with 
TEBOURBA and LIMERICK make a trio of bril- 
liantly colored flowers. It appears that LIMERICK 
has a most promising future as a commercial 
variety. Among varieties with larger crowns we 
find that either the crown is more orange than 
red, or the perianth is lacking in purity. Of this 
type, FERMOY is the largest and KILWORTH 
one of the most brilliant. We were much im- 
pressed with the quality of MONACO this year. 
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