Now my feet are actually back on the ground, I can tell you how thrilled I was to have finally won my first Farrer Memorial Medal at the AGS Wisley show last weekend, after 40 years of trying!
I have been preparing for the show since last summer, when I potted up snowdrop seedlings in clay pots so they would be show-ready in February.
Then came the mild November and all the snowdrops started into flower several weeks earlier than usual. After taking advice from colleagues on the RHS Bulb Expert Group, who are experienced with timing displays for shows of daffodils, I emptied out the beer fridge and put the drops in there for 3 weeks. They said that once they came out of the fridge, they would be likely to forge ahead very quickly.
Then the weather turned very cold and dull, and the snowdrops just stubbornly sat there, not moving. Coming up to a week before the show, I had to resort to bringing them indoors under a lamp.....
While this was all going on, the daffodils were looking after themselves (although I did put an oscillating fan on them for a while to try and strengthen the stems). The Farrer-winning seedling got herself runway ready all by herself, becoming a perfectly symmetrical posy of flowers in perfect condition without any help from me, accompanied by her sister seedling Pallene.
The winning cultivar will be named this summer. There are 43 bulbs in the pot, from natural increase (not chipped)
