Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere - 2007

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Anne, I will do a revised version after the flowering season has ended and see whether the SRGC want to publish it. You and others who are looking at our photos should let me know what you would like to learn about in terms of breeding miniature daffodils. Of course, you do realise a certain degree of eccentricity is a pre-requisite!
I have attached a few more photos for you. Lesley, I think you liked the miniature with the unusual colour on opening. I had not expected what it has changed into - a tiny 7W-YYP!

[Mini-daffs]

 
A few more photos for you.

[Paul T]

All lovely Graham!!  Beautiful!!!!!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Paul, you have the advantage of being able to see some of these things on Saturday.
Kind regards
Graham

[annew]

You and others who are looking at our photos should let me know what you would like to learn about in terms of breeding miniature daffodils.

Everything!!!
Well, for a start, are there particular characters that are most often passed on through the seed, or pollen, parent? eg shape from seed parent, colour from pollen?
You mentioned back-crossing - is back-crossing to one of the parents a way to get seeds from a sterile hybrid? Will either parent do?
Apart from the shape and size of the flower and length of stem, what other characters would you prefer one of your daffs to have?
If you really wanted to use the pollen from a plant you thought had virus, would it be safe to use it on a healthy seed parent? If it were the other way around, would you expect the seed from a virused seed parent to be virus-free?
Well, you did ask...

[Lesley Cox]

That last pic you posted Graham, the purple one, must be a real thrill. A brand new colour break and shape as well. It will be a world beater and in huge demand

[Paul T]

Hi
Paul, you have the advantage of being able to see some of these things on Saturday.
Kind regards
Graham

Graham,

Oh, and don't I know it!!    As you can see I am not exactly unhappy about that situation!!!!! 


Lesley,

Rather unusual shape for a daff though.  I'm doubting the purists would like it!! LOL

[Mini-daffs]

 
Anne, they won't publish an article that long! What are your hybridising goals? Miniature reverse bicolors, miniature white-pinks, miniature white-orange, miniature orange-orange, miniature split cups, miniature doubles, miniature jonquillas, miniature tazettas, miniature triandus...? If it is all of them you will need a property of about an acre and lots of polystyrene boxes and lots of pots.
I will give you a few pieces of wisdom now. N. cyclamineus is not a dwarfing parent but N. asturiensis is, don't use parents with too long a cup, too much frill and do use the best possible parents.
Stood out didn't it Lesley - that purple daffodil.   Now there is a goal for Anne. Purple via the pink side. You could start with some of the small lavendar coloured daffodils. And some suppliers just use Photoshop to achieve much the same result in their catalogues!!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Maggie
The 6W-YYP seedling looks like one of those below the belt flowers. Interesting parentage too. It is almost identical in size and appearance to our 6Y-YYP seedling except for it being a different colour. The pink is much more intense.
The 6Y-P photos is from our photo library.

[Mini-daffs]

 
A few more photos for you.
The 7Y-O only has one flower. It is difficult to know if it will have 2 or more. It is a largish miniature. It is also what happens when you grow a lot of daffodils. You have things happen that don't usually happen. N. fernandesii usually selfs but in this instance it was parent to a very nice coloured seedling.
The 7W-W is simply stunning. It is also a fernandesii seedling but I am not sure about the parent-probably N. watieri. The odds of getting such a white (and it opens bright white) are very low.
The unusual coloured little trumpet is probably a little reverse bicolor.
The last two are of my favourite miniature tazetta species.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few more photos for you. Lesley go no further-split cups may be among the photos!!![/glow]
No awards for guessing correctly what cross was made in relation to the N watieri.
Anne, if you have virus the best place for it is in the bin unless you have a vast estate and can separate them. If you have old varieties you may be faced with a difficult decision but virus does not improve the appearance of yellow daffodils.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Anne, backcrossing is a useful breeding tool with miniature daffodils. You are partly correct in what you say about sterility. I am not a scientist but as I understand it the story is a bit like this. A daffodil may be sterile when crossed with daffodils other one of the parents or grandparents. The fertility of the daffodil when backcrossed is because of unreduced gametes. You don't get full fertility but enough to set some seed. Most miniatures including species miniatures are diploids. Most standard hybrids are tetraploids. There are a whole of triploids that are from crossing diploids with tetraploids.  Sterility is often a problem with triploids. Not all species are diploids. Some are tetraploids and N. dubius has something like 38. Different genes counts make breeding difficult and intersectional hybridising is also a challenge. The other thing that can cause difficulties is when the species tend to self (like N. fernandesii). There is a scientific name for this and I am sure Maggie has it a the tip of her tongue.

[Maggi Young]

I am sure Maggie has it at the tip of her tongue.

Nope, sorry!

[Martin Baxendale]

I think you might be referring to apomixis - where a plant by-passes sexual reproduction and produces seeds without any fertilisation, which then result in seedlings that are identical clones of the mother plant.

Peter Brandham at Kew tells me this has recently been found to be happening quite a lot in monocots and is a problem for breeders of daffs, who in the past have put the failure of crosses down to accidental self-fertilisation spoiling crosses, when what was actually happening was apomixis. This was previously well-known in dicots but is now known to also be quite common in monocots.

[Martin Baxendale]

Anne, there's a very good article about how triploidy affects daff breeding, by Peter Brandham of Kew, in the RHS Daffs, Snowdrops and Tulips Yearbook 2002-2003. Do you have a copy?