NARCISSUS 2025

[annew]

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)

[Maggi Young]

What lengths show exhibitors will go to for their plants - and then the Farrer winning narcissus does it "by herself" !!
That's a really gorgeous narcissus, Anne - which I think is even more beautiful than 'Pallene'.

[YT]

Congratulations on winning, annew

Your winning medal proves not only your growing skills but outstanding breeding work with your life!

[Maggi Young]

Anne Wright beside her Farrer winning plant, photo by Julia Corden

[annew]

Trying not to jump up and down high-fiving everyone 

[annew]

Here's a little hybrid between a tiny N. bulbocodium nivalis and N. triandrus concolor, sown in 2018 and now I finally have a little potful.

[annew]

I've been very busy recording seedlings over the last few weeks. Most of the latest ones are triandrus hybrids.
3955 is triandrus x rupicola
4507 is triandrus x cordubensis

[annew]

4936 is triandrus x scaberulus
4949 is triandrus x dubius

[annew]

Some x susannae types.
4216 is triandrus x cantabricus petunioides