May Narcissus 2012

[FrazerHenderson]

    a Aircastle
    a Doctor Hugh
    a Evesham
    a Joyce Spirit
    a Joyce Spirit 1
    a Moon Shadow

[FrazerHenderson]

    a Quiet Waters
    a Silent Valley
    a Unknown
    a Sergeant Caye
    a Sergeant Caye 1
    a York Minster

[Armin]

Lovely, fine narcissus, Frazer.

Are all growing with you?

[ian mcenery]

Last one to flower from me

N  baby moon (I think)

[Kees Green]

That Sargeant Kaye is fantactsic 

I have my first bloom here-Taffetta, quite a few more buds -I love how the hoops flower so early.

[FrazerHenderson]

Lovely, fine narcissus, Frazer.

Are all growing with you?

Armin,
Not all of them, the pictures were taken at a daffodil show - maybe next year I'll achieve the perfection of some of the best growers (some hope!).

Kees,
Sergeants Caye (1YYW-WWY) is exquisite and readily available at just £2 per bulb from www.choicebulbs.com, a company owned by Frankie Charlton one of the premier showers of daffodils in the UK. He does deliver stock to EU (and accepts Euros in payment) but sadly not as far afield as NZ.

Frazer

[Lesley Cox]

Kees,
Sergeants Caye (1YYW-WWY) is exquisite and readily available at just £2 per bulb from www.choicebulbs.com, a company owned by Frankie Charlton one of the premier showers of daffodils in the UK. He does deliver stock to EU (and accepts Euros in payment) but sadly not as far afield as NZ.

Frazer

Wouldn't be allowed to import anyway.

[Kees Green]

Is a shame indeed.
I guess we make do with what we have and do some crosses to try to emulate what others have done.  Its the years of waiting though. This hobby will make me patient or drive me crazy-likely both
Cant wait to see mini-daffs hybrids in a couple on months

[Anthony Darby]

I just look at all the imported fruit an veg at Pack 'n' Save and wonder what the problem is! Does it really cost a fortune to import one bulb? I'm thinking of one example that was bred here, but lost and had to make its way back.

[Lesley Cox]

And I'm wondering which fruit or veg it was that carried that damned fruit fly into Auckland? No matter that it is costing the country (taxpayers) millions.

[Anthony Darby]

Spiderlings of Nephila edulis (a giant orb web spider) are blown across the Tasman every year. If the fruit fly could survive here in Auckland, it would be here already!

[Kees Green]

They have to make it first in numbers or one pregnant female. I dont think there is any doubt that they could survive in Auckland.
The fact that the traps found one is either very good management or good fortune.
The fact that all you need to do is drop your fruit in the bins before customs is a concern to me.

Lesley I guess the biosecurity costs will be ongoing forever-and it needs to be, last time the painted apple moth and there has been a few times that fire ant colonies have been found near the airport.

I agree that bulbs pose very little threat as exotic pests to NZ, especially hybrids of daffodils but unfortunately the line has to be drawn somewhere

[Anthony Darby]

One must assume then that they don't travel far and the Tasman is a barrier? Fruit flies are very fruitful. Consider this: one female fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster the vinegar fly) can, say lay 100 eggs. 50 males and 50 females emerge two weeks later. Each female can lay 100 eggs, so after four weeks you have 5000 fruit flies. Another two weeks and you have 250,000, then 12,500,000 etc. Supposing no limits and no predation. In one year, if you could fit 1000 fruit flies into the space contained by a match box, you would have a ball of fruit flies 90,000,000 miles across. That's from here to the sun! Goodness alone knows who worked this out!

[Gerdk]

Anthony (Lesley): Are you talking about Drosophila melanogaster or the med fruit fly Ceratitis capitata? Isn't the latter one the most dreaded pest insect?

Gerd

[Lesley Cox]

I don't know, myself, Gerd. Anthony will know its (I was going to say botanical) scientific name. We are just told on our TV news that it is a male Queensland fruit fly, a real baddie for us apparently. If one were found in the trap, it seems possible that there are thousands more out there. If there were only a single fly, how likely is it that it would have found its way to a trap? Though I believe these are baited with pheromones.