ADVENTURES WITH DAFFODILS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16458, 17 June 1924, Page 7

ADVENTURES WITH DAFFODILS.

BULB WORTH FIFTY GUINEA*. The great hall of the Royal Horticultural Society in Westminster, where through the year in sweet succession the treasures of British gardens are amassed, is to he the festival place today and to-morrow of the daffodil, a flower which all men praise. Loved, sung and studied for many centuries, in which the forms and shades we know to-day were undreamed of, the daffodil has grown in human esteem continuously. Among the six most popular flowers in I his country it. would find a place. This year it was our sunshine in a grey winter’s end, and is the stay of our hopes in a laggard spring. We have had to thank it often for a hold essay to give the world cheer. Daffodil shows art* not of old instilution. To Birmingham fell the honor of housing the first, in the spring of 1891!. At that time the first catalogue devoted entirely to daffodils was barely ten years old. It contained the names of St varieties, not counting the polyanthus, or bunch-flowered sorts. When it appeared the fascinating adventure of hybridising and raising new seedlings had been followed eagerly by devoted specialists for several decades. It has been followed widely since, and many of the triumphs cehieved will be shown in this display. Reference to the first catalogue naturally leads one to consider the last, with its more than 400 varieties of all kinds available for next planting season. It is the. catalogue of the firm that bears the name of old Peter Barr, the “Daffodil King,’’ who died in .1909. But there is also an official list, classified in eleven divisions, or daffodils, issued by the Royal 'Horticultural Society, and here are found the names of nearly g.'iOO varieties in cultivation and some 1400 others which have been lost to cultivation or surpassed by modern introductions. On some of the specialists’ stands to-day there will be seen more than 100 varieties of daffodils, and among them dozens of new seedlings, some named, but most merely nurn'ered. It need not surprise a visitor to lie told that some of these seedlings are worth £.lO a bulb. Of the beautiful new trumpet daffodil Golden Bong, for instance, there are but ten bulbs existing, and probably their creator would refuse to part with the whole of them for £IOO. Yet £lO is a small price compared with that at which the first bulbs of other varieties have been offered. The famous white trumpet daffodil Peter Barr was placed on the market about 21 years ago at £52 170 s per bulb. Conqueror, 14 years ago, was offered at £3(1; Pixie at £215; White Star at £2O.

If one considers the whole history of a now seedling daffodil, from the ilay when the pollen is transferred from one variety to another, to the time when the raiser is able to print the name of his novelty and offer it lo his clients, the price, if the bloom lie one of distinct and superlative beauty, does not appear excessive. For the interval may exceed 20 years. Suppose that the quest is a new trumpet daffodil. Hybridisation is effected in 'March or April, and the reselling seed, resembling that of the onion, is ready t to be sown in little boxes about July. For three years the daffodil crop in the boxes, coming' up year after year like the thin,' thread-like green of onion seedlings in their earliest stages, is left alone. In the fourth autumn tiny bulbs, have formed and these are lifted from the,boxes and planted out a few inches apart in registered beds, where they are loft until they flower. The time of. waiting for a bloom may be anything from 4 to 8 years, and then, with the trumpet daffodils, there will lie only one seedling in 199(1 worlh preserving. Is there any wonder that that one is prized? Then there must ensue another period of years—it may be 10 or more —while stocks are being raised, before the new daffodil can pass from the exclusive to the more general scale of commerce. Peter Barr, £52 10s. a bulb in 19011, is now down to, Os. (id.; White Queen, £2O in 1902, is Bd. now. The popular Fir Watkin was 3s. (id. a bulb in .1884; 40s. per 100 in 1893; and is 255. per 100 this year. Glory of Leiden was £5 per bulb in 1889, and now is sd. The stately Emperor began its career at 2s. (id., and is now worth 3d. I have a list of £4 new seedlings before me, and their average price is £4 10s per bulb. Nearly a generation may pais while a great new daffodil is descending to the popular price of ss. per dozen. —Daily Mail.