Alec Gray resources

[Matt T]

Here are some interesting old things, found tucked inside a secondhand book I picked up a few years ago. They are a 1956 catalogue and pricelist from Alec Gray's Treswithian Daffodil Farm, Camborne.

I've attached here the price list and sample pages from the catalogue (slightly larger that the recommended Forum format, but hopefully Maggi will forgive me as it allows folk to read the small text more easily).

If anyone is interested in seeing the full catalogue just get in touch and I can email you a copy.

[David Nicholson]

Ah, those were the days

[Ian Y]

M's in bed with my cold Matt, I have adjusted your picture to make it easier to read and re-posted it here.

[Matt T]

That helps, thanks Ian!

Sorry to hear Maggi has now picked up the cold germs. Hope she recovers soon.

[Graeme]

I love to see things like this - especially the prices........

Just imagine the work setting that lot out before computers.......

[Matt T]

I love to see things like this - especially the prices........

Just imagine the work setting that lot out before computers.......

We are blessed with how easy it is these days to create, format and edit publications. I wonder whether the hand-written corrections are from the pen of Alec Gray himself? He probably had a minion(s), but you never know.

[Dave Hardy]

what an amazing find. Thank you for sharing it with us. I have this year just got a few bulbs of cyclataz. Parent of Tete a Tete. Plan to cross with a number of whites and pinks and see if I can get something as vigorous as tete a tete but in new colour.
Xit is still a frequent show winning mini.

Dave

[annew]

Well, I'll have a few dozen N asturiensis at 30p a dozen! Fascinating, Matt.

[mark smyth]

Narcissus longispathus has been a desire of mine since seeing it in Margaret Owens garden in Feb 2008

[Matt T]

what an amazing find ... Xit is still a frequent show winning mini.

It was a nice surprise, especially considering that it’s such fragile paper and 60 years old! Leafing through the pages there are so many familiar species (taxonomic shuffling aside) and cultivars that have stood the test of time, but some that are lost to us now.

Well, I'll have a few dozen N asturiensis at 30p a dozen! Fascinating, Matt.

Me too, if you'll be doing a 'price match' offer on them, Anne! 

Narcissus longispathus has been a desire of mine since seeing it in Margaret Owens garden in Feb 2008

Great photo, Mark. A species I hope to see in the wild (weather/season dependant) when I embark on my trip later this year. Blanchard sought it out at a number of known/likely locations but only managed to locate it on the last stop of his trip.

[fermi de Sousa]

Matt,
thanks for sending the catalogue - it is fascinating to see what he had of his own and other breeders' dwarf daffodils to offer back then.
I wonder how many are still around? I recognise a few which we grow here and I have seen others on lists available in Australia - the quarantibne restrictions were less stringent a few decades ago!
cheers
fermi