Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere - 2007

[mark smyth]

very nice.

Next year I must spend a day at Brian's place and take photos of all his. I dont know if he is as far on as you

[Mini-daffs]

 
It has been quite warm during August so our miniatures are ahead of schedule by about 2 weeks. We look to be sliding back into drought which is not a good thing as level 4 restrictions will not be good for gardeners let alone us.
We have some good standard minis coming through now. Some of them are quite tiny.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Mark we have been breeding miniatures a lot longer than Brian and are in the position where we do most of our hybridising using our own seedlings. We don't do too much hybridising with the N.cyclamineus any more because we can use our own 6W-Y and reverse bicolor seedlings. We have one other advantage - a Mediterranean climate although it is a bit dry here at the moment. His advantage is that he can go to Spain and Portugal and get good clones to work with. We do have some very good species clones to work with and we try and get seed of species so we have as many variations as possible. We are flowering coloured miniatures now so we are making lots of progress.
We hybridise most forms of miniatures and are working with our own micro miniatures. I need to take a photo of our first apodanthe hybrid to flower for the season.
My last lot of photos for the evening. The last photo is one for Maggie. The only thing that is not wrong with the flower is its neck!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Not sure what to make of the fact that the most viewed photo from my last posting is the worst flower of the lot!
Despite it being a less than attractive flower I had another flower with lots of petals that needed some pollen so it got its chance to pollinate another flower.
I will start with some postings of the shadehouse. Plenty of flowers out at the moment. It won't be long and numbers will start decreasing.
The table in the shadehouse is where I do my hybridising with my surgical quality miniature forceps.
The shadehouse photos are big enough for the keenest person I hope!!
There is also a box of very nice Gipsy Queens for Mark.
I am having some problems with some our seedlings that have pink in the trumpets. They are fading to white. I need to stabilise the pink coloration. We have stable 6W-P seedling that should do the trick but it has not flowered yet. I will just have to make do with standard 6W-P pollen at the moment.
Not as many photos today as we went to the rugby in the afternoon.

[mark smyth]

Five of us were at Brians place this year and we all chose the same plant we would most like and also chose the same plant we wouldnt want. We were only asked at the end so we couldnt discuss it it front of the flowers. We dont like the idea of split corona miniatures

[Mini-daffs]

 
Mark, we do lots of hybridising and split cups is a tiny part of our hybridising program but we have split cup miniatures of standard form and split cup bulbocodiums. We will end up with W-P and W-W split cup miniatures in all likelihood but that does not mean you have to buy them.
Quite a few people like our 8 petalled miniatures but they will never see a daffodil show.
We breed and grow exhibition miniatures because that is what helps pay the bills for a large scale operation.

[mark smyth]

that's a cutie!

[mark smyth]

Graham can you tell us what happens once you find the perfect miniature? Do you send it away? Do you chip it? Do you wait for nature to take it's course? ....

[Paddy Tobin]

Graham,

Please excuse my lack of response to your fabulous postings. I have been dropping in regularly to view each successive batch of extraordinarily beautiful daffodils but have never taken the moment to say a 'Thank You' for showing these. They truly are exceptional and I imagine of great interest to growers of alpine and rock garden plants who are always taken by beauty in miniature.

Continued success  in your breeding programme and do please keep us updated.

Paddy

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Mark, if I found the perfect miniature I would take a photo and show it to Helen. However, it usually takes a number of years to evaluate a flower although I have a preference for selecting perfect exhibition blooms. So I expect them to flower faultlessly in year 1. We do have a faultless exhibition flower and that is Good Friend. It is probably the best 6W-Y miniature available (but I may be a bit biased). I have to admit to be pleased in 2006 when I found our first two genuine miniature 6W-P's but then again I am also happy with our white miniature division 5's.
Commercially, the perfect miniature is a replacement for Tete-a-Tete and yes we are working on that as well!
One of the characteristics of the perfect miniature is that it should be hardy. You don't want them to require the skill of a master gardener to grow them. I have a view that most people should grow miniature cyclamineus hybrids because they are a lot hardier than N. cyclamineus. We have hybrids that look just like the species but they don't require moisture all year.
Mark, I am at a bit of loss as to why I would send them away once I find the perfect miniature. The perfect miniature is of course one that divides rapidly and is exceptionally floriferous. Are you suggesting that I am that good a hybridiser that I might know how to breed such flowers? It would not be the case with our wet season miniatures as they are quite slow to multiply because they are too close to N. cyclamineus. However, it may be possible with our dry program miniatures if you are exceptionally skilled or very lucky. But then again I may have the skills of a surgeon and twin scale rather than chip. Yes, I have the scapel and we now have the facilities to do it and I have done it in the past. However, there is another thing that is called "grassing" that can be used to multiply bulbs as well but that requires a lot of knowledge about bulb growth and flowering.
Mark, we grow a lot of miniatures. It may be more than 100,000 so we have quite a few very good miniatures of various kinds simply because the odds are with us. We have also been doing it for a long time now (we started in the late 1980's).  I don't happen to think that the perfect miniature is one that can only be multiplied by twin scaling or chipping. And yes we have seedlings that multiply rapidly and are floriferous despite the rapid increase. Wouldn't you get a bit cranky if you paid top dollar for a bulb that never multiplied?
However, we don't have any arrangements with mass marketers so some of our best bulbs may never be available commercially (in the sense of available at your local nursery). A small number of good exhibition bulbs have been named and released by us and we have released some under number. Financially it is some of the species that bring home the bacon in terms of quantity of sales over the years. Our business is essentially driven by our US market. Miniatures are a big thing for those who exhibit in the US. The best thing is that if your customers are good growers and exhibitors then they tend to win using your bulbs and that has been our experience.
Miniatures are not a big thing in the UK although Brian may help change that. In the UK miniatures are more a feature of alpine gardeners and the focus is more on the species.
That is why the Quarantine people visit our farm each year-so we can export to the US and elsewhere. The market that I would like to crack is the Japanese one but I don't know whether they are into miniatures.
Paddy, thanks. I am never sure whether there is any interest in our flowers from these postings.

[Maggi Young]

Do you know, Graham, I think it may be that it does not appear that some of your photos are being veiwed much, only because they are quiteclear even from the thumbnails, and so people do not have to click to enlarge them to see what they are looking at, and so the "views" are not being counted. I find I can see the thumbnails pretty welland I expect I'm not the only one.
As to the Japanese market: I would have thought that it was  the perfect  market place for your miniatures: given their love of plants in general, bonsai skills, and capacity to miniaturise so many electronic gadgets, I would have thought that the Japanese would go crazy for mini-daffs! Good luck with your attempts to break into Japan!

[Paddy Tobin]

Graham,

Don't worry about the view count. As Maggi said there is no need to expand most of your images as they are close up photographs showing the bloom alone and so are perfectly clear to view as they are. I am delighted with your postings and look forward to each new addition.

Paddy

[Susan]

Thank you Graham.  It is wonderful to be able to see all your miniatures and to see how you breed them.  Am learning such a lot.  I don't always click on individual photos because I have dial-up and it takes so long, and anyway your photos are very clear. I always read your posts. 

Thank you once again,  Susan.

[mark smyth]

"Very nice two-tone yellow micro mini" extremely nice

[Maggi Young]

I have a view that most people should grow miniature cyclamineus hybrids because they are a lot hardier than N. cyclamineus. We have hybrids that look just like the species but they don't require moisture all year.

I agree, Graham, straight N. cyclamineus can be too awkward for some gardens and the hardier hybrids are a great choice.
I think, for appeal to the "alpine" growers, that hardier, more robustly healthy, versions, albeit hybrids, but looking very like one of the parents, would  go down a treat. I mean of other species, not just cyclamineus.