Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere in 2008

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Martin, the rule book says a miniature is less than 5cm in diameter so that is the magic size. For us a true white pink miniature is worth a lot more than a small cyclamineus hybrid. From a hybridising point of view the flower in question is invaluable because it is very dwarf and the flower is not far off miniature. However, the flower has such desirable characteristics that it would have been nice if it was just a few millimetres smaller. It is not a huge deal for us because we have genuine miniature white-pinks already.
You will be glad to know that Helen also suggested that I starve it but as it is from our dry program it is already starved! I suppose it may turn out to be a miniature for someone who is not a particularly good grower of miniature daffodils (they might also kill it).
It would probably look spectacular in an alpine garden as it is certainly diminuitive enough but probably a little too pricey at this point in time.

[Lesley Cox]

For me, the very tiny miniatures would be a great attraction as tinier the better, in my book but overnight I had an interesting email from Alan McMurtrie in Canada, who says that the Dutch who are now bulking up some of his reticulata irises, are complaining that they are too small!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Lesley, the Dutch make their own decisions about size etc but if one looks at the size of some miniatures in pots they look like they are on steriods. I suspect our failed miniatures (ie our intermediates) would be of more interest to them.
We spent a large amount of time putting up additional netting to protect our miniatures from the evil Currawongs and Cockatoos. As result not as many photos or as many crosses as there might otherwise have been. I did take a few photos of the Shadehouse so you will have to click on the photos to get a good look at what is flowering in it.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
The little 6Y-Y with the dark yellow trumpet is a very nice little seedling. It has excellent petal coverage.
I will attach the left side photo of the Shadehouse.
The miniature that I have attached is very unusually coloured. I will be interested to see what colour it changes to over time.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A move to the right now.
As you can see a lot of our miniatures are in flower. They are flowering much earlier than normal.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
More photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
More photos.

[annew]

I don't know if I've asked you this before, but do you sow your seed into those boxes, and are they moved on before flowering or grown to flowering in their seed boxes? If the latter do you feed them? Is it possible to winkle out a particularly good seedling whilst in growth, as I fing this nigh on impossible when they are closely grown in pots.

[fermi de Sousa]

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.

Hi Graham,
some of us non-exhibitors would be glad to take some of the "failures" off your hands!!
cheers
fermi

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Anne, we grow most of our miniatures in polystyrene boxes. We have grown in seed beds and we also grow in pots of various sizes. The boxes are the best method for us. We don't lift them unless we need to lift them to sell or select out. The mixes are improved soil and it is only the wet program boxes that have needed to be replenished. We have had more than 400 seedlings in a polystyrene box. That is a fairly tight fit!! If we feed them we use potash or slow release fertilizer that is high in potassium and low on nitrogen (too much nitrogen means good leaf growth but not necessarily extra flowers and maybe bulb rot). Whatever you do don't use animal fertilizers unless you don't like your daffodils and want to kill them off!
In relation to selecting out bulbs I have resorted to doing them in the green in recent years. Yes, it can be difficult but it is the best thing to do. I find it more difficult to do it when they dormant because it is difficult to know which bulb is the good one. Selecting out is important for commercial reasons--essentially we need to select out what is to be sold or used for breeding. Our soil mixtures are relatively friable which makes selecting easier.
Our pots are relatively large. We have problems with high temperatures and small pots. The large pots mean selecting out is relatively straight forward.
Some of our miniatures have been in the same box or pot for many years and it has not affected them. In fact some miniatures flower best when crowded. Some don't like being lifted and will sulk for several years when repotted. In this context, you have to remember that in a big year we might harvest 25,000 seeds. We have a lot of polystyrene boxes and a lot of pots!!
However, some of our best bulbs are lifted annually or biannually so they get new soil each year.
Fermi, the main problem with our "rejects" is the economics associated with selling them. However, if the $US and English pound slide too much more we will have to reconsider selling some of them! Lesley's comment about the market preferring larger flowers is another reason why even our good rejects won't be more widely seen.

[Paul T]

Graham,

Great pics as always.  I don't know what happened to it, but I did post a specific reponse to some of your postings on the previous page, but it has apparently disappeared into the ether somewhere along the line.  Very strange!?

I love the unusual coloured one you posted on this page, and the W-P one from the previous page (plus many others), and I too would love some of your rejects, as I've said before.  But I also realise you have to get to the stage where you only keep the very best anyway, purely because of space and regardless of marketability.  In your case with sowing so much seed every year you must have so very many things that you end up throwing out.  Heartbreaking for the rest of us to think about. 

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Paul, I have collector tendencies and I probably do too many crosses. The consequence is that we have never thrown out any daffodils of our own breeding. This has proved quite fortuitous because I was not very good at breeding standard daffodils when I first started hybridising but bred a lot of intermediates and small standards. My reaction was that I was a failure as a hybridist but once we started breeding good miniatures it became apparent that the smaller standards had a role to play in our various hybridising programs. The one thing that we didn't want was the biggest standards. What were once considered a failure are now a positive advantage. We don't have to go looking for other peoples intermediates because we have our own and we have an enormous range of them,including split cups and intermediates and in colours that are not commercially available. You have to remember that we actually have all apricot pink standard seedlings and all orange-red flowers of our own breeding. The thing about miniatures is just how many you can cram into a space. We have more miniatures than we can use for hybridising but I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of any them. Of course we look after our best seedlings much better than the also rans. It would probably cost me more in terms of time and money to get rid of the also rans. I don't have a lot of spare time as it is.

[annew]

Thanks for your advice, Graham.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Daffodil season is well and truly under way.
The very nice miniature whose photo appears above has revealed that is a 6P-P although the pink is very light.
I have also attached a miniature 1P-P. Not sure what caused the petal damage. I don't recall any miniature flowers having pink hues to the petals last year. We have bred 1A-A standard flowers but I was not expecting to have miniatures with pink hues in the petals. We also have a small 1Y-P that would be a miniature if the trumpet were shorter but I came across it too late in the day to take a photo of it today.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few photos of some unusual coloured seedlings. It is very difficult to pick what colour they will change to over time.