Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere in 2008

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
The 2008 season is upon us well and truly now and I am back with more photos with blue backgrounds. The season is much earlier than normal because of an unusually hot June. Our last really early season was in 1991. This means things are flowering out of sequence and that opens up hybridising opportunities that don't occur frequently (we don't bother storing pollen because we do too much hybridising as it is). Hopefully there will something of interest to those who like small and tiny flowers. There is also the occasional species photos as well. Not sure how I will cope with the limits...
Kind regards
Graham
Canberra where it is a little too sunny and dry

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Well at least I have a topic to post to now.
Some of the flowers in the photos are to die for if you are into hybridising!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Last post for the evening.

[Paul T]

Graham,

Beautiful as always!!  I love the cream one, third in your second posting, and the second one in your last posting..... well actually I like all of them, but those in particular.  Glad you're psoting pics as I won't be able to see your stuff at the show this year as I'll be down in Victoria.  Major bummer (although Victoria will be nice!  ).

Excellent pics as always, thanks for posting them.

[Joakim B]

Gramham I am delighted that You are back. 
I was worried that we would not get the show this Year.
I am very happy that I were wrong. 
I am enjoying these little wonders of Swedish colours (Yellow and Blue) 

Thanks again
Joakim

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Thanks for the welcome back Joakim and Paul. 
Joakim, daffodils, and miniatures in particular, are the mainstay of our business so once ther season is over I don't do any further posting. We have to harvest seed, lift and sell bulbs in summer and then plant out bulbs and seed in autumn and winter (I still have not finished planting out all our seed and will continue planting out seed until hybridising takes up all my time). Planting out the seed is always a big job. We are mechanised but there is still a lot of work that is done by hand. I was going to buy a new camera and lenses for taking daffodil photos but have not done so yet and may have to defer it a while.
Big changes in our lifestyle at the moment as we have moved to our farm and are in the process of building a new house at the farm. The move does mean that we have more time to look after our daffodils than running a farm and a suburban house. We used to spend a lot of time travelling between the two properties. Nearly all the miniatures have been weeded so we expect a better flowering season than for the last couple of years. I have also found the time to do quite a few selections already and I have not done as many so early before.
When you grow as many seedlings as we do flowering time is always exciting because there are always lots of new seedlings flowering.
I have a few other photos but I need to edit them down to a suitable size to post here. I have posted a few more photos. A couple are just to show that not all of our seedlings are perfect. However, even the less than perfect can be used for breeding.
Paul, are you going on a nursery crawl in Victoria?
Kind regards
Graham

[Joakim B]

Graham congratulation on the move! I hope the building of the house works out fine.
What was wrong with the trumpet of the second yellow in Your latest posting? Is it the "dent" or what makes it "not so good" it seems similar to the above but with maybe less "thrills"?
I am trying to learn to appreciate the perfection of these plants and also see the details to see what people are striving for.
Kind regards
Joakim

[Maggi Young]

Good luck with the new house, Graham. It will surely be much more relaxing a life for you not to be going back and forth all the time, which has to be stressful and just a waste of time and energy ?  You'll be getting HEAPS more work done!!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Joakim, you are correct, it is the "dent" in the trumpet. While smooth waisting is ok dents and uneven frill are not ok in the world of daffodil shows and judging. If you are into garden  plants it doesn't matter but there is no money in breeding garden plants for us. In terms of quality one of the nicest forms I have posted is the intermediate KB-I-3-6Y-Y-3-08 that has superb petal coverage and form. It is just a pity that it is not a miniature by our standards because it is not worth much as an intermediate sized flower. The KB 6Y-Y micro mini that I posted is very small but a careful examination of the petals shows that there is a space between the petals. That is a not so good characteristic. It would not do very well at a daffodil show in Canberra where you would see micro minis with good petal coverage but at other shows such faults are often overlooked because the flowers are so small that the faults are difficult to detect and there is not a good appreciation by judges that micro minis can and should be faultless. There is a tendency to be overwhelmed by the diminuitive size and for faults to be overlooked. We also breed flowers for growing in pots and pans but perfection of form is not so important as for show flowers. The problem with pursuit of show form is seen with standard yellow exhibition flowers. All the flowers look the same.
Maggi, moving to the farm has reduced our travelling a lot. This has coincided with dramatic increases in petrol prices. Ironically, our small farm (it is only 2.2 hectares but you can grow a lot of miniature daffodils on a fraction of the property) is actually in central Canberra while our old house was in suburban Canberra. As we are no longer maintaining two properties we are doing more work at the farm. Unfortunately we have to rebuild our non-daffodil plant collection as that was essentially sold with our house. However, it is unlikely that we will want to grow as many thirsty plants at the farm.
House is getting there slowly. The most important thing for the house has arrived in Canberra - our coffee machine!!
Kind regards
Graham in Canberra where it was foggy and cold today

[Joakim B]

Thanks for taking the time to explain this things Graham. It is interesting to learn about this.
Kind regards
Joakim

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Graham,
great to see you back on the Forum. Good luck with the new house. I hadn't realised that your farm was in the centre of the town! How do the daffodils cope with all that extra warmth from being in the Nation's (political) Capital? Do you need to set up "Hot Air" Buffers?
cheers
fermi

[Mini-daffs]

 
Fermi
Yes our farm is near the centre of Canberra. I have attached a photo which shows New Parliament House. The photo was taken from our back paddock. Parliament House is due west of that point and is the direction from which most of our hot summer winds come! I am not sure whether you are aware that there is a giant Australian flag that flies from the flagpole. It allows us to see wind direction and strength. No wind on the day the photo was taken!  I have attached a couple of other photos from the anniversary of VP day. We have been in drought for the last 7 years but I had not thought to attribute it to the politicians!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
More photos but this time back on the topic of daffodils.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
I am back with more photos. As I have said our season is very early this year. I would estimate that some daffodils are flowering about a month earlier than normal. This is readily apparent from the number of flowers in the Shadehouse. Of course to see what is in the Shadehouse you will have to open the photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 

I will go left now.