Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere in 2008

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
And now a move to the right!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Maggie
If it is late here what time is it there? Anyway some more photos for you to look at!!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Another couple of photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Some bulbocodiums. If you look carefully in the right hand corner of the box there is a big flower.

[Maggi Young]

Well Graham, it is 20 to three in the afternoon here in blustery Aberdeen, so I'm surprised you're not all fast asleep on your side of the world!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Maggie, it was Saturday here so it was a day of selecting seedlings, taking photos, weeding and doing crosses during daylight hours and editing photos before and after the rugby test.

[Paul T]

Great stuff Graham.  Love those white and yellow cyclamineus in particular, but those tiny versions of the species are pretty special too.  Excellent to see them all.  Thanks. 

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few more photos for you on what is a wet and cold evening in Canberra (sounds like summer in certain unnamed places  ). Luckily I did the crosses before the rain arrived mid-afternoon. Unlike other place we don't see much rain and to get rain all day is something one only dreams of. However, from a house build point of view I hope it stops so work can continue on the house.
First up there are some photos of species. I don't think I have a N. asturiensis vasconicus out so early. The one in the photo is a miniature hybridisers dream because it is about as perfect as you can get. It has overlapping perianth, lots of petal coverage and lots of substance and texture all courtesy of mother nature.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Oops!! Only one species included. N. romieuxii ssp rifanus is included in this batch of photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
This post is made up of photos of unusual coloured miniatures. We are breeding standard miniatures (ie 1W-Y's and 1Y-Y's) from our cyclamineus hybrids. Our aim to produce a range of improved standard miniatures. The main area that requires a lot of work and several generations of seedlings is getting lots of petal coverage. However, it is a long slow process but we have produced some interesting colours in this program. One of the seedlings is incorrectly numbered as a 1W-Y when it is really a 1Y-Y where the yellow is more of an eggshell yellow.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
One of the delights of hybridising is the first flowering of a seedling. We are large scale hybridisers so we always have lots of seedlings flowering for the first time. However, the more significant event is when the first seedlings from a particular year flower. This year we have our first seedlings from seed planted out in 2005. Our first seedling was a miniature 6W-Y. Not exhibition quality but ok for breeding purposes. At the moment we have lots of quality pollen available for hybridising.

[Paul T]

Graham,

I think I love every flower in every photo you've put up this evening.  All beautiful.  That N. asturiensis vasconicus is an absolute stunner as you say, but some of those miniatures and cyclamineus in the last 2 posts.....    I'll have one of each, thanks!! 

The end of the rain is currently moving through Wagga by the looks of the rain radar, and tomorrow is supposed to be much clearer.  We've had 15mm here so far, which is excellent.  Good coverage all over Canberra for a change by the look of it too.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Paul we have only had 12.6 mm so far but it is much appreciated as I transplanted a fastigate oak this morning because it was planted too close to the Shadehouse. I will be interested to see if the trees we transplanted to make way for our new house will survive. We moved them using a Volvo front end loader from down the road because the trees were too big for me to transplant using our John Deere front bucket although I trenched around them using the John Deere backhoe.
Our daffodils have been mostly weeded now and they will certainly appreciate the rain.

[Paul T]

Oooh, those two in the pot third from the top on the right look rather nice (well at this distance anyway).  I so want some of your daffs!! 

Have had about 22mm here now (10:45pm), which is fantastic.  Still raining, but only patchy now.  Will be interesting to see if any more develops overnight.  The western catchments have now had just on an inch or rain, so maybe some of this will actually finally go into the dams?  None of the recent stuff seems to have made any differences to the dam levels.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Paul our dam is not a catchment dam. It only gets water from our two sheds at the moment and to hold water it needs the clay to be saturated. The clay is dry so it absorbs the moisture and then dries out before it rains again. Our dam will probably only fill when our house is finished and the stormwater from the house also goes into the dam.
The miniatures in the pot you mention include one of our fancy standard miniatures (I have posted it again). It is the pot second from top in the middle row that has a couple of really good exhibition quality seedlings in it.