Narcissus September 2014

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Maggie, that would be fine if any of our daffodils were to ever find their way to Scotland but so far they have only made it England. Our US customers have a preference for early flowering miniatures.
We used to have a late show in Bowral but that stopped about 10 years ago. We purchased bulbs for their late flowering quality. We have extended the flowering season for many miniatures by quite a deal. It is now the end of September and we have a heap of exhibition quality miniatures flowering. Our season goes into October now. We have also done a deal of work so we have heaps of things flowering from the beginning of August.
I am running out of standards for breeding.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
One of the real breakthroughs is the intermediate sized flower in the previous post. It is almost miniature and is fertile with our miniatures so it opens up lots of opportunities as it is coloured.
As you can see from this photo we also have some good decoratives coming out of our hybridising.

[Mini-daffs]

Hi
Final post for the evening.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few more photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
The end is coming rapidly now. It has warmed up a bit and there was some wind so the end is nigh. Nearly time for me to turn into a big fat pumpkin and disappear for another 12 months.
I have done some very good crosses this year so in 3-5 years it will be interesting to see what we get in the way of new seedlings.
Soon it will be seed harvest time.
Anne I need some of your minions!

[arillady]

Graham you have some really lovely minis. You might need to breed for global warming as we here in SA had the high temps and strong winds yesterday that would wreck any late flowerers.

[Mini-daffs]

Hi
Pat, we are in a fairly exposed position in terms of winds from the west. Our miniatures tend to be the least affected by high temperatures. It is our standards that suffered badly in the drought and in particular when we had some hot August winds. We are on the way to drought-proofing the property via recycling systems and collecting rainwater. During the 13 year drought our miniatures actually thrived. They like it hot and dry. This year we had quite a few miniatures not flower because it rained too much at the wrong time.
To some extent our miniatures are protected by our 2 metre high colourbond boundary fence which is to the north-west. Have a look in the background of the photo at the fence. Our back fence is cyclone fencing so it offers no protection. As most of our trees are deciduous they don't help with strong wind at this time of the year as they don't have any leaves yet.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
I will start with some split cups from the Daffodil Show.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Some more split cups and some other good seedlings seen at the Daffodil Show.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Our season continues on. Some nice seedlings are still opening.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
These were posted from earlier photos but it is always good to see how some develop over time.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi
Fermi, how big was Clay's Gold for you. It should be over 50mm in diameter (tip of petals to tip of opposite petal).

Hi Graham,
It was certainly that size -here it is compared to a "normal" sized N.bulbocodium,
cheers
fermi

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Good to see that it is performing properly for you Fermi. It should stand out in the garden for you from the comparison.
We have a number of Division 7 hybrids of our own breeding that have been flowering for between 6 weeks and 4 weeks. The bulbs send up flower stems over a period so it provides a very long bloom period. Very unusual but it provides more colour in the garden than a normal daffodil.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few more late flowering daffodils. You know the season is coming to an end when the Quickstep hybrids are opening. I don't think we grow any quickstep itself any more but we do have some which are probably Quickstep selfed.
One of the seedlings is a nice miniature 7W-P seedling.