Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere in 2008

[annew]

Seriously cute! 

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Main computer is waiting for a new motherboard and I have just managed to get the back-up computer working again!!
I need to post some more photos while I can!! The 1W-W (at least that is what I think it will fade to) is to die for. It is tiny and has a perfect perianth with wide overlapping perianth.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
More photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Some more photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Even more photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few different ones - definitely not exhibition flowers.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Maggie, the large one has continued to grow since it was at its prime. When at its prime it was a large miniature. It looks particularly large because the other flowers in the pot are a lot smaller, including the newer flowers from the offsets. Even if it was too big it is such a good flower (and it multiplies well) that you would just miniaturise it. I put pollen from a much smaller flower onto it if I remember correctly.

[Maggi Young]

I can see that the fat little one would be a good breeder, Graham.......hope your tickling works well!
 
The 1w-w in Reply 61 above is adorable.......super shape.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Maggie the very small 1W-W is what it is all about. I have to use its pollen. It is being kept out of the weather at the moment.

[annew]

I agree, Maggi - it's a gem.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
 >:(We have been attacked by Currawongs and worse still cockatoos so we will have to put up some more nettings as a matter of urgency. The cockatoo damage is more worrying because they cut off the leaves under the ground.
The 6W-P is only a few millimetres too big to be a miniature--ahhh!!! If it were a miniature it would be worth a lot more. It is miniature in height because it is only 9cm high. However, it is valuable for breeding. It opens white-pink and is almost certainly colour fast.
The really nice miniature is not a white but a reverse bicolor but this year there is a yellow strip in the trumpet.
The little 6Y-Y from our dry program is the sort of thing that is a must for breeding small cyclamineus hybrids.
The 6Y-O is quite a neat flower. It is too big to be miniature and this is surprising when its seed parent was N. cyclamineus. This is evidence that N. cyclamineus is a not a parent for dwarfing purposes. Some of our N. cyclamineus are quite tall.

[Martin Baxendale]

The 6W-P is a real little cutie though, Graham. Maybe if you starve it   

I am so glad the snowdrops I raise from seed aren't show flowers with the same strict category rules and fixed ideas of what's "right" and what's "wrong" as in the daffodil show world. So I'm completely free to like what I raise if I choose to and no-one can say it's not "right" because there is no "right" or "wrong" , just general notions of elegance, shapeliness, proportion etc, and the essentials like strong flower stem, vigour, etc.

It must be annoying when you just miss "perfect" with a lovely seedling. Personally, I find many of your more starry-flowered seedlings, with what in show terms would be considered poor (narrow) petal coverage, very charming and elegant. While some daffs with very wide overlapping petals seem to me rather chunky. I'd make a rotten daff breeder!

[Martin Baxendale]

P.S. I didn't mean your seedlings with wider petals seem chunky, Graham. I was speaking generally (and thinking specifically about some larger varieties in particular that I've seen in bulb catalogues but can't recall the names of right now).

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Martin, no offence was taken (I was online when you post was made). In relation to standard daffodils your comment is quite apt. If you go into a show and see a hundred all yellow trumpets that all look a lot the same it raises issues about what exhibition rules are doing in terms of daffodil breeding. It will be a while before miniatures reach that point. Main problem is that it is daffodil exhibitors who pay for our miniatures and that dictates what you breed for. Some of our non-show flowers are very nice but it does not pay to breed them.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hi Graham. Yes, it was the larger daffs I was mostly thinking of, rather than the miniatures, and I'm glad things haven't progressed to quite the same degree with the miniatures (yet!).

It was just a general thought about the constraints imposed when a plant becomes a 'show plant' with a large dedicated following and a rule book that must be adhered to.

I appreciate the particular problem for a breeder who puts in a lot of time and effort to raise something very nice but which may not produce any financial reward because it just misses fitting a set of tight requirements. I'm just happy that doesn't (yet!) happen with snowdrops. Makes things much easier. I'm still an amateur but if I do raise some worthwhile things in the snowdrop line eventually and decide to go commercial, at least I won't have to worry about my raisings fitting into categories and meeting exacting criteria before anyone will buy them. They'll just have to be plants that I really like and enough other people really like (and damn good garden plants).