DAFFODIL NOTES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 21, 22 May 1912, Page 38

DAFFODIL NOTES.

To anyone visiting Vincent Square last month it was obvious that another Daffodil season had begun in reality. A white-bearded gentleman who must well remember pre daffodil days was standing beside me looking at the new lovely soft yellow-coloured St. David on Mr. Bourne’s stand when, after a moment’s pause, he unexpectedly exclaimed “When are they going to end?” W’e both agreed we did not think it

would be in the lifetime of either of us. Year by year the tide of seedlings flows stronger and stronger, and as each season passes, along the high-water mark we find new and uncommon forms aiid colours. A Striking Novelty. Perhaips the most striking one was the Ajax on Mr. Engleheart’s stand with a pale warm pink trumpet am l ivory perianth. Diameter of perianth, 31 incites; trumpet. 13 inches long by 1 i inches at the mouth. One of its ancestors was albicans, and by working on this with appropriate pollen, “Engleheart’s Pink, as I should like the flower to be called, was evolved. It may lie remeniliered that Mr. Adams, of Wolverhampton exhibited a somewhat similar break last year which had been “made in Holland.” Daffodils to Remember.—If one could

imagine that we saw Castile through a magnifying glass which not only enlarged perianth and cup but also had the power of brightening the dull red of the latter, we would get as a result something like Robespierre, which stood out as the most conspicuous How-er in Mr. A. M. Wilson’s group. Its brilliant red orange cup is a very attractive bit of colour, and it richly deserved the award of merit which was bestowed upon it. It has a 4-inch perianth and the cup is at least 1J inches across. 1 ought to mention that there is only one bulb

for sale, and that is priced at £2O. Rubalite, from the same collection, also obtained a similar award. It is a glorious Poetaz of large size. As a rule, there seem to be two flowers only in a truss, which, I think, rather detracts from its appearance. It has a white perianth and an all-red eye. Gyrfalcon is a peculiarly taking giant Leedsii, “quite a show’ flower.” Size: Periantn, inches; cup. lj| inches long and 11 inches wide. Its perianth is slightly campanulate, and each of its segments is formed on the spade ace pattern; but its chief charm is the delicate suggestion of green, which is apparent throughout the whole Hower. Oenone is one of the old-fashioned Leedsiis, almost a self. Its shade is difficult to describe. To me, green (a la blue) skim milk suggests what I mean. Sealing Wax, so named because

of its solid red eye, is a good strong grower and “the earliest of all the reds and whites. Perianth, 2| inches, and eye three-quarters of an inch in diameter. All the foregoing were exhibited by Mr. Wilson. Messrs. Barr and Sons.’ display, which was awarded a silver-gilt Flora medal, had many single specimens of new trumpets of’ varying degrees of excellence. As there were two flowers of the famous Michael there, one was able to make comparisons. Cyrus appealed to me very much. It certainly has a look of Michael

about it, and it is much the same in size, but with a much less campanulate perianth. It failed in that it lacked that rich smoothness of texture which is the older flower's special characteristic; King Arthur was another good yellow’, and Atlas was a large bi-colour, 4A inches across the perianth and with a two-inch long trumpet conspicuously recurved at the mouth. Those who dislike violent contrasts, such as we get in Empress, will like this bloom. As I am confining these notes to the newest of the new’, I will only mention Volcano before I pass on to Mr. Bourne’s flowers. Volcano is the l>est of the Copeland doubles, in that it is quite symmetrical in form and the colour contrast is good and well proportioned,*the red bits peeping up among the deep yellow being “just about right.”

The cynosure of the Bletchley Howers was again Helios. Thora, the lovely pale cinnailion-eupped giant Leedsii, was shown in fair form. The soft, sulphurclothed St. David again appeared, but something must have happened. If he were not a saint, I should have ■said his wife had smartened him up —his halo (1 beg pardon, perianth) was so much flatter and tidier and his massive squat trumpet had lost its ungainly appearance