Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Mini-daffs on July 15, 2008, 11:06:13 AM
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The 2008 season is upon us well and truly now and I am back with more photos with blue backgrounds. The season is much earlier than normal because of an unusually hot June. Our last really early season was in 1991. This means things are flowering out of sequence and that opens up hybridising opportunities that don't occur frequently (we don't bother storing pollen because we do too much hybridising as it is). Hopefully there will something of interest to those who like small and tiny flowers. There is also the occasional species photos as well. Not sure how I will cope with the limits...
Kind regards
Graham
Canberra where it is a little too sunny and dry
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Well at least I have a topic to post to now.
Some of the flowers in the photos are to die for if you are into hybridising!
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Last post for the evening.
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Graham,
Beautiful as always!! I love the cream one, third in your second posting, and the second one in your last posting..... well actually I like all of them, but those in particular. Glad you're psoting pics as I won't be able to see your stuff at the show this year as I'll be down in Victoria. Major bummer (although Victoria will be nice! ;D).
Excellent pics as always, thanks for posting them. :D
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Gramham I am delighted that You are back. 8)
I was worried that we would not get the show this Year.
I am very happy that I were wrong. ;D
I am enjoying these little wonders of Swedish colours (Yellow and Blue) :o
Thanks again
Joakim
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Thanks for the welcome back Joakim and Paul.
Joakim, daffodils, and miniatures in particular, are the mainstay of our business so once ther season is over I don't do any further posting. We have to harvest seed, lift and sell bulbs in summer and then plant out bulbs and seed in autumn and winter (I still have not finished planting out all our seed and will continue planting out seed until hybridising takes up all my time). Planting out the seed is always a big job. We are mechanised but there is still a lot of work that is done by hand. I was going to buy a new camera and lenses for taking daffodil photos but have not done so yet and may have to defer it a while.
Big changes in our lifestyle at the moment as we have moved to our farm and are in the process of building a new house at the farm. The move does mean that we have more time to look after our daffodils than running a farm and a suburban house. We used to spend a lot of time travelling between the two properties. Nearly all the miniatures have been weeded so we expect a better flowering season than for the last couple of years. I have also found the time to do quite a few selections already and I have not done as many so early before.
When you grow as many seedlings as we do flowering time is always exciting because there are always lots of new seedlings flowering.
I have a few other photos but I need to edit them down to a suitable size to post here. I have posted a few more photos. A couple are just to show that not all of our seedlings are perfect. However, even the less than perfect can be used for breeding.
Paul, are you going on a nursery crawl in Victoria?
Kind regards
Graham
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Graham congratulation on the move! I hope the building of the house works out fine.
What was wrong with the trumpet of the second yellow in Your latest posting? Is it the "dent" or what makes it "not so good" it seems similar to the above but with maybe less "thrills"?
I am trying to learn to appreciate the perfection of these plants and also see the details to see what people are striving for.
Kind regards
Joakim
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Good luck with the new house, Graham. It will surely be much more relaxing a life for you not to be going back and forth all the time, which has to be stressful and just a waste of time and energy ? You'll be getting HEAPS more work done!!
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Joakim, you are correct, it is the "dent" in the trumpet. While smooth waisting is ok dents and uneven frill are not ok in the world of daffodil shows and judging. If you are into garden plants it doesn't matter but there is no money in breeding garden plants for us. In terms of quality one of the nicest forms I have posted is the intermediate KB-I-3-6Y-Y-3-08 that has superb petal coverage and form. It is just a pity that it is not a miniature by our standards because it is not worth much as an intermediate sized flower. The KB 6Y-Y micro mini that I posted is very small but a careful examination of the petals shows that there is a space between the petals. That is a not so good characteristic. It would not do very well at a daffodil show in Canberra where you would see micro minis with good petal coverage but at other shows such faults are often overlooked because the flowers are so small that the faults are difficult to detect and there is not a good appreciation by judges that micro minis can and should be faultless. There is a tendency to be overwhelmed by the diminuitive size and for faults to be overlooked. We also breed flowers for growing in pots and pans but perfection of form is not so important as for show flowers. The problem with pursuit of show form is seen with standard yellow exhibition flowers. All the flowers look the same.
Maggi, moving to the farm has reduced our travelling a lot. This has coincided with dramatic increases in petrol prices. Ironically, our small farm (it is only 2.2 hectares but you can grow a lot of miniature daffodils on a fraction of the property) is actually in central Canberra while our old house was in suburban Canberra. As we are no longer maintaining two properties we are doing more work at the farm. Unfortunately we have to rebuild our non-daffodil plant collection as that was essentially sold with our house. However, it is unlikely that we will want to grow as many thirsty plants at the farm.
House is getting there slowly. The most important thing for the house has arrived in Canberra - our coffee machine!!
Kind regards
Graham in Canberra where it was foggy and cold today
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Thanks for taking the time to explain this things Graham. It is interesting to learn about this.
Kind regards
Joakim
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Hi Graham,
great to see you back on the Forum. Good luck with the new house. I hadn't realised that your farm was in the centre of the town! How do the daffodils cope with all that extra warmth from being in the Nation's (political) Capital? Do you need to set up "Hot Air" Buffers? ;D
cheers
fermi
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Fermi
Yes our farm is near the centre of Canberra. I have attached a photo which shows New Parliament House. The photo was taken from our back paddock. Parliament House is due west of that point and is the direction from which most of our hot summer winds come! I am not sure whether you are aware that there is a giant Australian flag that flies from the flagpole. It allows us to see wind direction and strength. No wind on the day the photo was taken! :o I have attached a couple of other photos from the anniversary of VP day. We have been in drought for the last 7 years but I had not thought to attribute it to the politicians! ::)
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More photos but this time back on the topic of daffodils.
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I am back with more photos. As I have said our season is very early this year. I would estimate that some daffodils are flowering about a month earlier than normal. This is readily apparent from the number of flowers in the Shadehouse. Of course to see what is in the Shadehouse you will have to open the photos.
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I will go left now.
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And now a move to the right!
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Maggie
If it is late here what time is it there? Anyway some more photos for you to look at!!
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Another couple of photos.
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Some bulbocodiums. If you look carefully in the right hand corner of the box there is a big flower.
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Well Graham, it is 20 to three in the afternoon here in blustery Aberdeen, so I'm surprised you're not all fast asleep on your side of the world!
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Maggie, it was Saturday here so it was a day of selecting seedlings, taking photos, weeding and doing crosses during daylight hours and editing photos before and after the rugby test.
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Great stuff Graham. Love those white and yellow cyclamineus in particular, but those tiny versions of the species are pretty special too. Excellent to see them all. Thanks. 8)
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A few more photos for you on what is a wet and cold evening in Canberra (sounds like summer in certain unnamed places :D). Luckily I did the crosses before the rain arrived mid-afternoon. Unlike other place we don't see much rain and to get rain all day is something one only dreams of. However, from a house build point of view I hope it stops so work can continue on the house.
First up there are some photos of species. I don't think I have a N. asturiensis vasconicus out so early. The one in the photo is a miniature hybridisers dream because it is about as perfect as you can get. It has overlapping perianth, lots of petal coverage and lots of substance and texture all courtesy of mother nature.
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Oops!! Only one species included. N. romieuxii ssp rifanus is included in this batch of photos.
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This post is made up of photos of unusual coloured miniatures. We are breeding standard miniatures (ie 1W-Y's and 1Y-Y's) from our cyclamineus hybrids. Our aim to produce a range of improved standard miniatures. The main area that requires a lot of work and several generations of seedlings is getting lots of petal coverage. However, it is a long slow process but we have produced some interesting colours in this program. One of the seedlings is incorrectly numbered as a 1W-Y when it is really a 1Y-Y where the yellow is more of an eggshell yellow.
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One of the delights of hybridising is the first flowering of a seedling. We are large scale hybridisers so we always have lots of seedlings flowering for the first time. However, the more significant event is when the first seedlings from a particular year flower. This year we have our first seedlings from seed planted out in 2005. Our first seedling was a miniature 6W-Y. Not exhibition quality but ok for breeding purposes. At the moment we have lots of quality pollen available for hybridising.
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Graham,
I think I love every flower in every photo you've put up this evening. All beautiful. That N. asturiensis vasconicus is an absolute stunner as you say, but some of those miniatures and cyclamineus in the last 2 posts..... :o I'll have one of each, thanks!! ;D
The end of the rain is currently moving through Wagga by the looks of the rain radar, and tomorrow is supposed to be much clearer. We've had 15mm here so far, which is excellent. Good coverage all over Canberra for a change by the look of it too.
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Paul we have only had 12.6 mm so far but it is much appreciated as I transplanted a fastigate oak this morning because it was planted too close to the Shadehouse. I will be interested to see if the trees we transplanted to make way for our new house will survive. We moved them using a Volvo front end loader from down the road because the trees were too big for me to transplant using our John Deere front bucket although I trenched around them using the John Deere backhoe.
Our daffodils have been mostly weeded now and they will certainly appreciate the rain.
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Oooh, those two in the pot third from the top on the right look rather nice (well at this distance anyway). I so want some of your daffs!! :o ;D
Have had about 22mm here now (10:45pm), which is fantastic. Still raining, but only patchy now. Will be interesting to see if any more develops overnight. The western catchments have now had just on an inch or rain, so maybe some of this will actually finally go into the dams? None of the recent stuff seems to have made any differences to the dam levels. ::)
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Paul our dam is not a catchment dam. It only gets water from our two sheds at the moment and to hold water it needs the clay to be saturated. The clay is dry so it absorbs the moisture and then dries out before it rains again. Our dam will probably only fill when our house is finished and the stormwater from the house also goes into the dam.
The miniatures in the pot you mention include one of our fancy standard miniatures (I have posted it again). It is the pot second from top in the middle row that has a couple of really good exhibition quality seedlings in it.
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Graham I love al these miniature Narcissus, you show here.
I believe breeding of them is a specialty of which I seldom hear
in Holland.
As I know not much about breeding Narcissus, I have one question.
What do you mean with "wet program" in:
Box of wet program cyclamineus hybrids
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Luit, Graham writes about this is the old forum, here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/8751.html
I have copied the main piece below....
[quote ..... your question about our "wet programme" is a common one. N. cyclamineus and several other species (such as N. alpestris and some bulbocodium species that like it wet)prefer to be kept moist all year. N. cyclamineus will die if it dries out in summer. We have a hybridising programme that uses such species as the seed parents. The resulting seedlings are also kept moist all year. Such conditions probably equate to some gardeners normal growing conditions but they are not our normal growing conditions. We have to water our seedlings all through our hot summers to keep them and N. cyclamineus alive. We use Camellia japonica as our moisture monitor since it grows in the same conditions. If its leaves droop then we need to water.
Our normal growing conditions are Mediterranean--hot dry summers and cold winters with most rainfall in winter and spring in normal growing seasons. These are the conditions at our farm and we expect our miniatures to thrive with a minimum of care at the farm. Our "dry hybridising program" is made of our seedlings that thrive in hot dry summers. These seedlings die if they get too much moisture in summer. We have miniature white cyclamineus that are from our dry hybridising program. Some of our best seedlings including Platinum Legend, Second Fiddle, Good Friend and K2/2000 are all from our dry program. N. cyclamineus may be in the parentage but not as a seed parent. It is either as a pollen parent or in the parentage of the seed or pollen parent. Our dry program includes a lot of miniatures that are not cyclamineus. We have produced a lot of exhibition triandus hybrids. (We primarily produce exhibition daffodils for export to the USA but we also export to the UK and NZ.) Our dry programme is very large relative to our wet programme. We produce around the same number of seeds as Brian Duncan but most of our seed is second, third or fourth generation hybrids these days because we have been doing it for since the late 1980's.
Some of our USA customers have a preference for the dry programme hybrids because they have dry summers.
I suspect that there is a range of bulbs that have been developed in better conditions than ours that would prefer conditions closer to our wet programme conditions. We have grown some imported bulbs at the farm only to find that they fade away in our hot dry summer conditions.
The normal rule for growing species is of course to provide conditions as close as possible to their natural habitat. If they grow in wet conditions in the wild we provide them with much the same conditions.
We have produced micro minis from both our wet and dry programmes.
One of things about doing hybridising on the sort of scale we do is that we can develop our new hybrids over a number of generations. We don't necessarily think that we will achieve our goals in one generation. However, the advantage of working in miniatures is that the flowering time is much shorter than standards subject to the fact that N. dubius takes 9-11 years to flower from seed.
quote]
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Maggi, if it's 20 to 3 in the afternoon with you, it's 20 to midnight in Australia and 20 to 2 here, it being winter here and presumably in summer time in Aberdeen (though not necessarily summer :'(). There's a short period each autumn and spring when our summer time has started but yours hasn't ended, that we are 12 hours ahead and Oz is 10. Then we go to 13 hours ahead and Oz to 11, Oz being 2 hours behind us. Confused? In other words, if it's night time in Italy, it's Wednesday over here. And I wish certain NH persons would remember all these numbers when deciding to phone me after lunch (there).
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Luit, Graham writes about this is the old forum, here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/8751.html
Thank you Maggi, that’s very informative.
I thought first I made a stupid question, but I see in 2005 the same question raised.
Now I understand a lot more about Narcissus. As you know we discussed in the Forum that the Mediterranean forms need a warm period to flower in the next year again.
And I think I now understand the reason why some miniatures won’t flower the first year after planting. I refer to N. willkommii, of which I believed it has only to be planted deep, but now I think when I got them the first time, they were kept to dry.
There is so much to learn in this Forum. Really great!
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Luit, Maggie has saved me some typing.
N. wilkommii certainly likes it hot and dry over summer. It is one of the daffodils that has appreciated our drought!
When growing species it is best to look up to see what climate and soil conditions it grows in where it is native.
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Luit, Maggie has saved me some typing.
N. wilkommii certainly likes it hot and dry over summer. It is one of the daffodils that has appreciated our drought!
When growing species it is best to look up to see what climate and soil conditions it grows in where it is native.
O.k. then I was not quite right with N. willkommii.(Have to learn a lot still ;D ). In that case it must have been
the very hot April of last year. Am curious what next year happens? Almost no hot periods until now.
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Time for a few more photos for those interested in miniature daffodils.
I am having trouble with Currawongs (a largish native bird that is particularly smart and aggressive towards other smaller birds). They have snipped the heads off some of our miniature seedlings including 4 selected ones in the Shadehouse (they are smart enough to fly through the entrance).
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Sometimes we overdo the miniaturising thing a bit!
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A few more photos. Nature has done its best to provide a form of miniature that Lesley is not so keen on.
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Aargh! Currawongs are a pain. They don't damage things in my garden that I know of, but they chase all my lovely birds away!! They travel in packs and beat up on everything. ::)
But your remaining daffs are gorgeous Graham. I love that last W-Y micro mini in your first posting. Very delicate. Actually I like all the W-Y you posted!! Except of course the poor decapitated corpses in the last pic. :'(
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Just found this thread! All your babies look great, Graham. My favourites are the ones with a paler zone at the base of the trumpet. Glad I don't have the Currawongs.
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Just back from watching the Rugby.
The Currawongs have truly annoyed me. One went into the Shadehouse and snipped off the flowers and, to make things worse, the leaves on 4 top quality miniature 6W-Y's that I had pollinated. They have attacked flowers in 2 of my seedling rows and got in under my anti-bird netting and attacked the clump of 6W-Y's that contains the 6W-Y that was posted here. Unfortunately the net was left up further down the row. They are in large numbers (I counted about 20 one day) next door because of the vineyard behind us. They like grapes apparently and the small birds attracted by the grapes.
All this damage occurred while there was a large amount of building work going on a short distance from the daffodil beds! The bricklayers just don't rate as scarecrows obviously.
I will probably have to net some of the more recent miniature rows to protect them from the Currawongs. I usually net to protect things from the cockatoos. The cockatoos don't enter the Shadehouse. I am at a loss as to how to stop them entering the shadehouse easily as there are spaces under the eaves and at ground level.
Anne, does that mean you like to collect halos!! ;D ;D (Sorry, couldn't resist. In the daffodil world the type of daffodil you are talking about is described as having a halo.)
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The litle trumpet in its pot.
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These Currawongs seem a real pest... can you eat them? By which I mean, 1) arethey tasty? and 2) is it legal to shoot them?
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I don't need to collect halos, I already have one ;)
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Maggie, Currawongs are a native bird. They are fairly large and are a bird of prey. They are our natives revenge on all the imported bird life that took over for many years. They have adapted well to changes in the landscape and urbanisation. When I was young there were lots of sparrows and starlings about as well as lots of small natives. That is no longer the case because the Currawongs attack their young and eggs. Our area has low numbers of small birds now.
They are not big enough to scare cockatoos and tend to compete with magpies (a good bird) for territory. I have seen them attempting to intimidate the local kookaburras.
It is illegal to shoot them in the ACT and I can't imagine anyone ever eating them!
Anne, I suspected you had a halo but I just thought you collected them as well! ::)
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Is the currawong a very large bird that crashes through the tree tops and looks like a flying bomb? I remember something like that from the Blue Mountains.
Graham, I do like all of these, well, perhaps not the heavily frilled/split ones but certainly all the others. Wish you hadn't mentioned the rugby. The All Blacks played like idiots. Serve them right they lost.
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Not sure from the bird pics, but probably!
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Lesley,
They are relatively similar to our magpies, but a little more streamlined. I wish they'd do more damage to the Indian Minors and the Starlings, which are breeding prolifically on the north side. The Minors are only just appearing in my suburb and I am thinking about contacting the Minor Eradication Group to see if I can get a trap from them and try to remove the ones that are setting up here. We've seen them looking for nesting sites so want to head that off. For those who are concerned about the trap it is a humane trap which just traps them, then they are taken to the RSPCA for humane euthanasing. The rate they breed at without intervention is dreadful, and with the Currawongs they can wipe out pretty much all other bird species (and the Currawongs do a good enough job of that just by themselves). :'(
Good luck Graham with working out some way to proof the shadehouses. I am getting all sorts of damage in the garden this year that I haven't had before that I have been putting down to starving parrots, but now I am wondering if it is currawongs. Flowerheads being snipped off hellebores, then the stamens etc being removed. I had thought it was either parrots or possums, but now I am wondering. Why would the currawongs target them though? I know they're scavengers, but what possible interest would daffodils etc hold?
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Paul,
Do you have a Latin name for the ' Indian Minors ' ? Can't find anything via Google.
Gerd
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Gerd,
Maybe Paul means Indian Mynah birds. They used to be popular as pets because they are good talkers but I don't know if they are around much now.
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Indian myna or mynah - Acridotheres tristis. Clasified as one of the world's most invasive bird species. Prevelant in huge parts of Asia, and from Egypt to Kazakstan. Major problem in Australia and becoming one in northern New Zealand.
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I knew at the time I wrote it that it looked wrong, but didn't realise it was THAT wrong! ::) Yes, it should be mynah. Obviously had a brain freeze at the time. Sorry. :-[
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Unfortunately the main Keira Bulbs computer went down last Sunday due to Vista throwing a wobbly. The problems have not been sorted out yet so the back-up computer has been brought on-line.
Indian Mynahs have started to move into Pialligo so I suspect they will become a major pest before long.
I had more photos to post last Sunday so there is some catching up to do as I also have photos from today.
I will start with some superb tiny flowers from our dry program. We have a lot of flowers out much earlier than normal.
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Some of these photos show some of Keira Bulbs standard breeding miniatures. Petals are thin because of their cyclamineus parentage but they have plenty of substance and texture in their petals. One desirable feature of these seedlings besides their diminuitive size is the fact that the perianth stands at right angles to the trumpet. They have been crossed with flowers with better petal coverage from the earlier posting.
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A few more photos.
The pot photos will be best viewed if you click on them. They will give you a good idea of just how small the flowers and stems are.
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A couple of pot photos.
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A few more photos.
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Bless these micro minis... they are barely visible to the naked eye, aren't they? I suppose the large flowered mini in the center of the "pot of miniatures" has an out of scale flower and is not so desirable for your purposes, Graham? It is very cute though!! 8)
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Graham,
Some very cool flowers in there. Love the first 4 you posted, but pretty much all of them as usual are glorious. I think the "pot of miniatures" is very cool. Would love to have that flowering here at my place!! ;) ;D I too like the larger on in it, although that tiny one at the bottom of the photo is pretty special too, but then so are all that you've posted tonight.
Thanks for the most enjoyable pics.
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Seriously cute! :D
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Main computer is waiting for a new motherboard and I have just managed to get the back-up computer working again!!
I need to post some more photos while I can!! The 1W-W (at least that is what I think it will fade to) is to die for. It is tiny and has a perfect perianth with wide overlapping perianth.
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More photos.
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Some more photos.
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Even more photos.
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A few different ones - definitely not exhibition flowers.
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Maggie, the large one has continued to grow since it was at its prime. When at its prime it was a large miniature. It looks particularly large because the other flowers in the pot are a lot smaller, including the newer flowers from the offsets. Even if it was too big it is such a good flower (and it multiplies well) that you would just miniaturise it. I put pollen from a much smaller flower onto it if I remember correctly.
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I can see that the fat little one would be a good breeder, Graham.......hope your tickling works well!
The 1w-w in Reply 61 above is adorable.......super shape.
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Maggie the very small 1W-W is what it is all about. I have to use its pollen. It is being kept out of the weather at the moment.
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I agree, Maggi - it's a gem.
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>:(We have been attacked by Currawongs and worse still cockatoos so we will have to put up some more nettings as a matter of urgency. The cockatoo damage is more worrying because they cut off the leaves under the ground.
The 6W-P is only a few millimetres too big to be a miniature--ahhh!!! :'( If it were a miniature it would be worth a lot more. :'( It is miniature in height because it is only 9cm high. However, it is valuable for breeding. It opens white-pink and is almost certainly colour fast.
The really nice miniature is not a white but a reverse bicolor but this year there is a yellow strip in the trumpet.
The little 6Y-Y from our dry program is the sort of thing that is a must for breeding small cyclamineus hybrids.
The 6Y-O is quite a neat flower. It is too big to be miniature and this is surprising when its seed parent was N. cyclamineus. This is evidence that N. cyclamineus is a not a parent for dwarfing purposes. Some of our N. cyclamineus are quite tall.
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The 6W-P is a real little cutie though, Graham. Maybe if you starve it :)
I am so glad the snowdrops I raise from seed aren't show flowers with the same strict category rules and fixed ideas of what's "right" and what's "wrong" as in the daffodil show world. So I'm completely free to like what I raise if I choose to and no-one can say it's not "right" because there is no "right" or "wrong" , just general notions of elegance, shapeliness, proportion etc, and the essentials like strong flower stem, vigour, etc.
It must be annoying when you just miss "perfect" with a lovely seedling. Personally, I find many of your more starry-flowered seedlings, with what in show terms would be considered poor (narrow) petal coverage, very charming and elegant. While some daffs with very wide overlapping petals seem to me rather chunky. I'd make a rotten daff breeder!
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P.S. I didn't mean your seedlings with wider petals seem chunky, Graham. I was speaking generally (and thinking specifically about some larger varieties in particular that I've seen in bulb catalogues but can't recall the names of right now).
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Martin, no offence was taken (I was online when you post was made). In relation to standard daffodils your comment is quite apt. If you go into a show and see a hundred all yellow trumpets that all look a lot the same it raises issues about what exhibition rules are doing in terms of daffodil breeding. It will be a while before miniatures reach that point. Main problem is that it is daffodil exhibitors who pay for our miniatures and that dictates what you breed for. Some of our non-show flowers are very nice but it does not pay to breed them.
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Hi Graham. Yes, it was the larger daffs I was mostly thinking of, rather than the miniatures, and I'm glad things haven't progressed to quite the same degree with the miniatures (yet!).
It was just a general thought about the constraints imposed when a plant becomes a 'show plant' with a large dedicated following and a rule book that must be adhered to.
I appreciate the particular problem for a breeder who puts in a lot of time and effort to raise something very nice but which may not produce any financial reward because it just misses fitting a set of tight requirements. I'm just happy that doesn't (yet!) happen with snowdrops. Makes things much easier. I'm still an amateur but if I do raise some worthwhile things in the snowdrop line eventually and decide to go commercial, at least I won't have to worry about my raisings fitting into categories and meeting exacting criteria before anyone will buy them. They'll just have to be plants that I really like and enough other people really like (and damn good garden plants).
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Martin, the rule book says a miniature is less than 5cm in diameter so that is the magic size. For us a true white pink miniature is worth a lot more than a small cyclamineus hybrid. From a hybridising point of view the flower in question is invaluable because it is very dwarf and the flower is not far off miniature. However, the flower has such desirable characteristics that it would have been nice if it was just a few millimetres smaller. It is not a huge deal for us because we have genuine miniature white-pinks already.
You will be glad to know that Helen also suggested that I starve it but as it is from our dry program it is already starved! I suppose it may turn out to be a miniature for someone who is not a particularly good grower of miniature daffodils (they might also kill it).
It would probably look spectacular in an alpine garden as it is certainly diminuitive enough but probably a little too pricey at this point in time.
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For me, the very tiny miniatures would be a great attraction as tinier the better, in my book but overnight I had an interesting email from Alan McMurtrie in Canada, who says that the Dutch who are now bulking up some of his reticulata irises, are complaining that they are too small!
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Lesley, the Dutch make their own decisions about size etc but if one looks at the size of some miniatures in pots they look like they are on steriods. I suspect our failed miniatures (ie our intermediates) would be of more interest to them.
We spent a large amount of time putting up additional netting to protect our miniatures from the evil Currawongs and Cockatoos. As result not as many photos or as many crosses as there might otherwise have been. I did take a few photos of the Shadehouse so you will have to click on the photos to get a good look at what is flowering in it.
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The little 6Y-Y with the dark yellow trumpet is a very nice little seedling. It has excellent petal coverage.
I will attach the left side photo of the Shadehouse.
The miniature that I have attached is very unusually coloured. I will be interested to see what colour it changes to over time.
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A move to the right now.
As you can see a lot of our miniatures are in flower. They are flowering much earlier than normal.
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More photos.
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More photos.
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I don't know if I've asked you this before, but do you sow your seed into those boxes, and are they moved on before flowering or grown to flowering in their seed boxes? If the latter do you feed them? Is it possible to winkle out a particularly good seedling whilst in growth, as I fing this nigh on impossible when they are closely grown in pots.
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Main problem is that it is daffodil exhibitors who pay for our miniatures and that dictates what you breed for. Some of our non-show flowers are very nice but it does not pay to breed them.
Hi Graham,
some of us non-exhibitors would be glad to take some of the "failures" off your hands!!
cheers
fermi
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Anne, we grow most of our miniatures in polystyrene boxes. We have grown in seed beds and we also grow in pots of various sizes. The boxes are the best method for us. We don't lift them unless we need to lift them to sell or select out. The mixes are improved soil and it is only the wet program boxes that have needed to be replenished. We have had more than 400 seedlings in a polystyrene box. That is a fairly tight fit!! If we feed them we use potash or slow release fertilizer that is high in potassium and low on nitrogen (too much nitrogen means good leaf growth but not necessarily extra flowers and maybe bulb rot). Whatever you do don't use animal fertilizers unless you don't like your daffodils and want to kill them off!
In relation to selecting out bulbs I have resorted to doing them in the green in recent years. Yes, it can be difficult but it is the best thing to do. I find it more difficult to do it when they dormant because it is difficult to know which bulb is the good one. Selecting out is important for commercial reasons--essentially we need to select out what is to be sold or used for breeding. Our soil mixtures are relatively friable which makes selecting easier.
Our pots are relatively large. We have problems with high temperatures and small pots. The large pots mean selecting out is relatively straight forward.
Some of our miniatures have been in the same box or pot for many years and it has not affected them. In fact some miniatures flower best when crowded. Some don't like being lifted and will sulk for several years when repotted. In this context, you have to remember that in a big year we might harvest 25,000 seeds. We have a lot of polystyrene boxes and a lot of pots!!
However, some of our best bulbs are lifted annually or biannually so they get new soil each year.
Fermi, the main problem with our "rejects" is the economics associated with selling them. However, if the $US and English pound slide too much more we will have to reconsider selling some of them! Lesley's comment about the market preferring larger flowers is another reason why even our good rejects won't be more widely seen.
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Graham,
Great pics as always. I don't know what happened to it, but I did post a specific reponse to some of your postings on the previous page, but it has apparently disappeared into the ether somewhere along the line. Very strange!?
I love the unusual coloured one you posted on this page, and the W-P one from the previous page (plus many others), and I too would love some of your rejects, as I've said before. But I also realise you have to get to the stage where you only keep the very best anyway, purely because of space and regardless of marketability. In your case with sowing so much seed every year you must have so very many things that you end up throwing out. Heartbreaking for the rest of us to think about. :o ;)
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Paul, I have collector tendencies and I probably do too many crosses. The consequence is that we have never thrown out any daffodils of our own breeding. This has proved quite fortuitous because I was not very good at breeding standard daffodils when I first started hybridising but bred a lot of intermediates and small standards. My reaction was that I was a failure as a hybridist but once we started breeding good miniatures it became apparent that the smaller standards had a role to play in our various hybridising programs. The one thing that we didn't want was the biggest standards. What were once considered a failure are now a positive advantage. We don't have to go looking for other peoples intermediates because we have our own and we have an enormous range of them,including split cups and intermediates and in colours that are not commercially available. You have to remember that we actually have all apricot pink standard seedlings and all orange-red flowers of our own breeding. The thing about miniatures is just how many you can cram into a space. We have more miniatures than we can use for hybridising but I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of any them. Of course we look after our best seedlings much better than the also rans. It would probably cost me more in terms of time and money to get rid of the also rans. I don't have a lot of spare time as it is.
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Thanks for your advice, Graham.
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Daffodil season is well and truly under way.
The very nice miniature whose photo appears above has revealed that is a 6P-P although the pink is very light.
I have also attached a miniature 1P-P. Not sure what caused the petal damage. I don't recall any miniature flowers having pink hues to the petals last year. We have bred 1A-A standard flowers but I was not expecting to have miniatures with pink hues in the petals. We also have a small 1Y-P that would be a miniature if the trumpet were shorter but I came across it too late in the day to take a photo of it today.
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A few photos of some unusual coloured seedlings. It is very difficult to pick what colour they will change to over time.
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Finally a photo that is a result of breeding down. This flower is too big to be a miniature but it is on quite a short stem. It has petals width and overlap that makes it something special.
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Graham
I think they are all magnificent even if they do not match the 'rules' I particularly like Seedling E with petal length to match trumpet length.
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Finally a photo that is a result of breeding down. This flower is too big to be a miniature but it is on quite a short stem. It has petals width and overlap that makes it something special.
Yes indeed. Very nice.
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Graham, I notice in a picture on the previous page that you have a couple of beer bottles sitting on a table. These are for insecticide and fungicide? What a good idea ;D
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Leslie, one of the prerequisites of daffodil exhibiting is a lot of beer bottles. In days gone by beer bottles were used for exhibiting daffodils but for insurance reasons plastic units are now used. However, you still need your beer bottles to store your flowers for exhibiting and for hybridising purposes. Different sized bottles are needed depending on what sort of flowers you grow. The preferred bottle for standards was Lowenbrau. It is an expensive restaurant beer. The stubbie bottle is ideal for smaller flowers such as miniatures and intermediates. The only thing is that keen daffodil growers have daffodil refrigerators rather than beer fridges. You would be surpised as to how many flowers you can fit into a 400 litre refrigerator, particularly if they are miniatures.
The bottles on the table were used for taking pollen to the miniatures and for taking photos. I need water rather than beer as a result of serious burns from a tractor accident several years ago. The water is needed to rebuild my skin layers where the burns were not full thickness. The hazards of farming and farm machinery!
The effect of the judging rules for miniatures can be easily seen from our flowers. Long elegant cyclamineus hybrids are less likely to conform to the rules than short stubby cyclamineus hybrids. Short stubby N. cyclamineus are one form of the species and not necessarily the most attractive form.
Time to go and do a few more crosses and take a few photos.
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More photos for those interested.
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Even more photos.
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Another group of photos.
One of the problems I am encountering is flowers that change colour. It is difficult to identify which ones turn pink and which ones don't.
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On this matter of blooms changing colour, Graham..... we know that lots of narcissus do change colour after opening... as you say, this makes it tricky for you in various ways.... my question is:
how long "Should" it take/ is it "allowed" to take, for a colour change to take place for a) classifying the colour and b) for the flower to be considered at its peak for exhibition?
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Some lovely flowers there, Graham.
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Maggie, the colour for exhibiting a flower is when it is fresh. Freshness is when the pollen is yellow and fluffy. With all the advanced breeding going on there are going to be flowers that may still have fresh pollen when the flower changes colour. We have flowers that start off all yellow and then change to white-pink and eventually all white. This colour change can take place in the refrigerator so the white flower still has fresh pollen. There is also the reverse bicolors that start off all yellow and fade to yellow-white and in some cases yellow-white, white, yellow. The yellow-pink trumpet seedling starts out as an all yellow trumpet. We have a whole series of jonquilla hybrids that come in a variety of colours and can have 3 different coloured florets out at the same time. These flowers don't fit the colour classification for daffodils when it comes to naming and registering them. In terms of judging, most judges would not know that the flowers change colour so they will judge according to what is in front of them on the show bench.
Some photos of the challenges of using N. alpestris for hybridising.
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A few more photos. Not as many as I would have liked but it was windy and cold for most of the day. However, there are some photos of some nice seedlings so I hope you enjoy them. I have even included a photo of our miniature split cup for Leslie! ::)
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A few more photos of the Shade House. Spring has come a bit early for the daffodils. It is just a pity the weather were not more spring like. Really windy is not the best conditions for hybridising and taking photographs!
Beastie is another flower from Rod Barwick of Glenbrook Bulb Farm in Tasmania.
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1 and 5 are particularly nice.
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2 and 4 ain't bad either ;D
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Anne you like the high quality exhibition flowers (although 1 is also a colour break seedling) and David has gone for colour (I still have work to do on the perianths but getting colour into the seedlings has taken a while). Not sure how I ended up with such good colour because the seedlings in question are part of our pot hybridising program. What I will do is work to improve the perianths and use them to breed smaller flowers.
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A few more photos of some of little daffodils. There will be two photos of what I term fortuitous daffodils. While checking the beds I discovered a high quality 6Y-Y in a box of what I thought were standard daffodils and I discovered a feral miniature 6Y-O that was opening. Both have been given new homes in their own pots. I have found breeding 6Y-R miniatures more elusive than breeding miniature white-pinks.
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A few more photos of what was flowering in Canberra today.
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The last group of photos for the evening.
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I like that last but one, it has personality.
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What would you call it Anne? Snub Nose? or Rhino? I like the two immediately above it.
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One of my favourite flowers is N. tenuifolius. It is the smallest bulbocodium species. We have a number of different clones that vary in size. The smallest of our N. tenuifolius clones is minute.
There are quite impolite names for seedlings that are not attractive. The problem in relation to the white pink flower is that it may open totally differently next year. It is hard to tell whether it is a cyclamineus hybrid or a standard.
The feral miniature 6Y-O is looking very promising. A largish miniature but a definite miniature with very nice wide petals. A definite 6Y-O means I can work on developing early 6W-O flowers. I have been working on late flowering 6W-O using our stock of standard 1W-O and 2W-O flowers.
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Fascinating thread Graham ! :o
So many beauties - very hard to choose from...
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Graham,
Fascinating as always. I think my favourite of the last week would have to be "Eggshell coloured miniature with pink overcast - angled view.jpg" on the last page.
Also "KB-M-6W-W-16-2004 - multiplies well.jpg" on this page. I love the twin flowered bulbocodium (is that a usual trait, or just a one-off mutation?) and those tenuifolius are gorgeous. There are a number of others too, but I figured I had better keep the list down in size. ;) I so wish I could purchase a few from you, particularly some of those lovely white-pink miniatures, or the pink-pink ones of course. ;D
Lovely to see the pics. I am so going to miss seeing your flowers at the show this year.... if only the Victorian thing wasn't the same weekend. ::)
Thanks for taking the time to photograph, prepare and post the images for us to enjoy. Wonderful to see all your little treasures.
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Paul, sounds like you like the latest and greatest (and also the most expensive) miniature daffodils. I am not sure whether it is the weather or our breeding but we are starting to see some unusual coloured daffodils appearing among the seedlings this year. The intriguing thing is that some photos are showing pink colouration which is difficult to discern (probably because of my photochromatic lenses). We have done a lot of hybridising for pink so it is not surprising that we have pink showing up. I prefer it when the pink is strong and permanent. I find the ones that change colour or only show it on the inside of the trumpet a bit of a pain and I will have to work to intensify the pink so it is colourfast and obvious. We have some seedlings in the colourfast category already. The one that didn't open properly is a very obvious pink but not exhibition standard by any means!
The two headed bulbocodium is certainly a mutation but whether it only a temporary aberration or more permanent is difficult to discern. It is the first one to appear in our seedling boxes.
Luc, our miniatures are the product of 20 years of hybridising on a fairly large scale so there is quite a lot of them and because we are geographically isolated breeders our seedlings tend to be like no others. I expect there to be more coloured ones and some of our later flowering exhibition flowers and then the move to non-cyclamineus hybrids in a big way. We have a lot of standards out at the moment as well but I don't have the time or inclination to do much with them.
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My apologies to the addicts who look at the miniature daffodil photos. Inclement weather last weekend so no photos.
While I don't have a lot of photos today the photos are of some exciting new miniatures. We do a lot of breeding down and it has finally producing some exciting new miniatures of standard form. Initially I was disappointed because most of what was flowering was intermediate rather miniature in size. I then noticed some much smaller flowers on shorter stems. We have a superb 2Y-O and a stunning 1W-Y as well as a 1Y-Y. The stem of the 2Y-O is only about 9 cm while the others are slightly taller. They would look good in an alpine garden but unfortunately they would be somewhat pricey!!
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Lovely form to them all, Graham, and that white micro-mini cyclamineus hybrid is a little stunner too. I assume you chip or twin-scale your best seedlings quite soon after their first flowering to clump them up, or do you grow them on to use them as pollen and seed parents first and see what natural increase and disease resistance is like before chipping them? How long is it generally for you from first flowering to having enough stock to offer for sale?
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Martin the aim is to breed miniatures that don't need chipping. We have the ability to breed miniatures that divide rapidly and are floriferous. That is also a long and arduous process so there are some flowers that are high quality but not that quick at multiplying so there is a need to use other propagation measures. There are some techniques available to us that can be used instead of chipping but in terms of quantity are similar. If everything goes well we can have some to sell in 3 to 4 years. We usually use new seedlings for hybridising. Occasionally we will pick some exceptional flowers for our local show. Ironically the judges don't always appreciate which flower is really exceptional. Last year we entered an exceptionally good white-pink miniature cyclamineus hybrid and the judges didn't realise it was miniature or exceptional.
Our dry program seedlings are very hardy. They are grown outdoors and don't receive any special treatment other than anti-bird netting to protect them from the cockatoos and currawongs. We are still in drought and the effect on our miniatures has not been overly bad. Our standard sized daffodils have not fared anywhere near as well.
The intermediate split cup is on a miniature stem but the flower is intermediate size and a little too pointy in the petals for my liking. However, the split is even and deep. Obviously one for Lesley!
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Oooh, nos 1 and 2 are rather special.
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Graham,
Beautiful form to all of them, but the cyclamineus white is the one that really catches my eye. Stunning, in all cases!!
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Anne and Paul, you have shown once again a preference for the most expensive exhibition daffodils!!
The miniature cyclamineus flowers are exceptionally good exhibition flowers but nowhere near the hybridising challenge as the standard miniatures.
Martin, I will post some photos later of some miniatures that have desirable characteristics in terms of multiplying and flowering.
Lots of people appear to looking at the miniature photos but not too many comments.
The first photo is of a bulbocodium with unusual form. I am not sure it is stable because it is an offset from a bulbocodium clump that did not have this form. It may be a sport. I would like it to pass on the form and intensify the form. Only time will tell.
The other photos are of species. I quite like N. hedreanthus luteolentus. It is one of my favourite species.
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Graham,
Good to know that Anne and I have excellent taste!! ;) I just love the alpestris myself, but the hedreanthus luteolentus is pretty special too. I have bulbocodium graellsii in flower here at the moment which I love, but I clearly remember your teeny tiny little version of it that I seriously lusted after at one of the spring shows. I am so going to miss seeing them this year.
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Lots of people appear to looking at the miniature photos but not too many comments.
Graham
I am one who has looked and marveled at the beauty of these miniatures. My comments would be repetitious as you keep on amazing me with the variety, colour, form and sheer beauty of your efforts over many years.
I find I am with Anne and Paul in having expensive taste - but more frustratingly a taste that you are unwilling to satisfy. I quite understand the effort it would take, and will have to be satisfied with drooling at a distance.
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Arthur, we breed bulbs with the ultimate aim of selling the bulbs. We export to the US and the UK but our market is primarily those interested in exhibiting or breeding miniatures. This is a small but specialised world and the price of good exhibition bulbs is very high. We also produce a lot of bulbs that are quite suitable for alpine gardens that are not of exhibition standard. The cost of exporting them is prohibitive because of the cost of phytosanitary certificates unless the order is very large. I am not sure that the Dutch would be interested in our bulbs because they prefer big and bold rather than small and beautiful.
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Graham,
And both of them are cuties!! Nice to see them in their pots to give a real size reference.
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Some more photos.
Paul, yes they are little cuties and they are the sort of thing that people who want to breed miniatures should have. They will breed standards and cyclamineus hybrids and have extremely complex genes so you can breed for all whites, white-yellows, reverse bicolors, all yellows and more significantly coloured seedlings. The big bonus is rapid increase and floriferous in nature.
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First one I have not liked - the double moschatus. The single is so much more elegant.
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Graham,
some stunning stuff!
I'm thinking of re-mortgaging the house, so can you send me your bulb list this year? please?
cheers
fermi
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Graham I have been following your photos too and there are just too many lovelies in them. Like Paul I do like the N. alpestris and some of those little ones but I do like the untidyness of the doubles - I too much prefer the smaller and daintier than the larger stronger looking daffs.
I ordered some bulbs of what Hancock's sell as N. odoratus which I cannot find in Blanchard's book, Charity May (only because my daughter's name is Charity and it was quite a nice simple one) and I will try again with J T Bennett Poe and some Pueblo which I can't remember now.
Has anyone any of Alister Clark bred daffodils?
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Pat, we don't have any really old cultivars like those of Alistair Clark. Ian Dyason from Victoria is likely to know who may still have some of them.
A few photos of flowers exhibited at the Canberra Show will be posted. The weather was not kind so it was surprising to see as many quality flowers as there were on display.
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Graham, I assume that champion miniature is the cyclamineus micro-mini seedling you showed us a few days ago. Congratulations! A well-deserved win.
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Martin, thanks. It is interesting to see what is opening at the moment. I am currently downloading some photos of some of our jonquilla and triandus hybrids that did not flower in time for the show. The other hybrids that are flowering in profusion are our apodanthe hybrids.
This post includes more show photos. The triandus hybrids are some of our latest and greatest. They are intermediate in size.
The reason you will be seeing some very advanced triandus and jonquilla hybrids is because we have fertile triandus and jonquilla hybrids to work with.
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Really interesting developments in triandrus. I find the specie difficult to grow - or retain. Are your hybrids good doers? or is it too early to know.
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Arthur, we have triandus hybrids that are strong and robust. As a general rule hybrids that have modern standards in their parentage are more robust than the species. This is certainly the case with both N. cyclamineus and N. triandus. The only caveat is that we can grow and keep NTT and N.cyclamineus for years (they actually split vegatively for us) so we have better growing conditions and techniques than most people.
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I see I managed to post two of the same photos and only noticed it now (I don't look at my own photos. I see enough while editing them.)
As you can see from the photos we dabble in breeding bulbocodiums as well.
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While Lesley is not around I will post some split cup photos. I have already posted a photo of a small intermediate split cup that is close to miniature in size. Todays post includes a genuine miniature split cup. However, it has nicks which mean it is not exhibition quality. However, it shows that miniature splits are obtainable. The Davis seedling bred Congress x Loch Stac is a small intermediate seedling of high quality. The other split cups are standards.
I have been doing some work on hybridising miniature split cups. We have split forms of N. watieri and N. cordubensis.
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A few photos from today. It was too windy for hybridising and taking photos later in the day. The apodanthe hybrid and the jonquilla hybrid are high quality exhibition standard.
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Does Lesley get a bit worked up over the splits?
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While Lesley is not around I will post some split cup photos. I have already posted a photo of a small intermediate split cup that is close to miniature in size. Todays post includes a genuine miniature split cup. However, it has nicks which mean it is not exhibition quality. However, it shows that miniature splits are obtainable. The Davis seedling bred Congress x Loch Stac is a small intermediate seedling of high quality. The other split cups are standards.
I have been doing some work on hybridising miniature split cups. We have split forms of N. watieri and N. cordubensis.
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Some very lovely triandrus hybrids there. I too find the species difficult to keep.
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Does Lesley get a bit worked up over the splits?
The words 'bears', 'poo' and 'woods' spring to mind.
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Graham et al, while this may seem to come from Otto (a man of exquisite taste and refinement), believe me, it comes straight from Lesley and I AM around, and seeing what's going on here!!!. I think Martin has said everything I would have said, so I'll shan't add to his very pertinent comments.
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Hello Leslotto!! ;D
Graham,
Wonderful photos. While I hate that I missed the show here, I did so enjoy the trip to Victoria..... so it is sort of a "swings and roundabouts" type feeling. Glad it all went well and that there were good entries.
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Just when you think it is safe to post splits Otto turns into Lesley!! :o
Martin have you turned into Lesley as well?? :o
Ross you may have worked out that Lesley is not keen on splits at all. :D
Lesley, I have included a photo of a miniature double especially for you!! It is one of Rod Barwick's flowers. I have also included a photo of N. watieri split cup form to show that splits can be naturally occurring. Splits are very popular amongst the public because they are so different. I have been doing a few crosses in the hope of getting some nice miniature split cups.
Anne you are very consistent in your choices--an eye for the expensive ones!!
Paul, good to hear that you enjoyed you trip to Victoria. The Show was a bit down on quality compared to previous years but there was still plenty to see.
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A few more photos. This time it is some photos of our smallest triandus hybrids to date for Anne. Not sure whether they will only have one flower or multiple flowers once the bulb size increases. They have good form so I suspect the pollen parent was our N triandus triandus exhibition form. It can have up to 6 forets so there is a good chance of having more than one flower to a stem. I repotted some of our triandus hybrids this year and have been rewarded with up to 3 florets per stem this year. Most of these seedlings are intermediate in size but there are some smaller miniature ones. The best thing is the overlapping high quality perianths. They come in a variety of colours and colour combinations.
The "secret" to growing N triandus triandus successfully is to keep them dry during summer. They simply don't like moisture during summer.
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Graham
Your smallest triandrus hybrids are wonderful, they are my favourite small daffodil, even if I find them difficult to keep - thanks for the 'secret'.
Unlike Lesley I do like your split cup daffodils. On the other hand, the miniature double you included for Lesley, ranks with Rip Van Winkle as one of the nastiest daffodils around - it should have been strangled at birth. It is a good job we all like different things or you would not have developed the stunning cyclamineus and triandrus hybrids, along with many others.
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Cute! :D
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At Otto's over the weekend I saw a double form of N. cyclamineus. Very strange, yet still quite interesting to me for it's unusual nature. Definitely not particularly pleasing to the eye. It was just lots and lots of petals, all curving back just like normal cyclamineus...... weird but cool in it's own way. But then I like unusual and different things.
Sorry, didn't photograph it I think, and I haven't processed all the other pics I took over the weekend so nothing to post as yet. Just home from work and going to go for a lie down to try to catch up on some sleep. ::)
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Hmm, you weren't seeing double were you Paul? I suppose I could immortalise Lesley by naming a miniature split cup after her!! ;D
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Hmm, you weren't seeing double were you Paul? I suppose I could immortalise Lesley by naming a miniature split cup after her!! ;D
Good grief, Graham... have you a death wish? :o
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Graham,
No, there was definitely only one of them!! ;D I actually found it quite fascinating.... I'd just never thought about what a double cyclamineus would look like. Wish I'd photographed it to show everyone, but just didn't think of it at the time.
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If my memory is correct Jack Ripper got a first in it's class at last week's Hobart show, but Jackson's got the Grand Champion. If anyone is interested I could post a photo or two.
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If my memory is correct Jack Ripper got a first in it's class at last week's Hobart show, but Jackson's got the Grand Champion. If anyone is interested I could post a photo or two.
Indeed, Rob, why not ?
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Here's a pic I took of Otto's double a couple of weeks ago, but in the evening so the flash came on.
The best thing about it is that it appears to have viable stigmatic bits! Pollen was applied and it remains to be seen if anything comes of it!
cheers
fermi
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Here's a pic I took of Otto's double a couple of weeks ago, but in the evening so the flash came on.
The best thing about it is that it appears to have viable stigmatic bits! Pollen was applied and it remains to be seen if anything comes of it!
cheers
fermi
I thought Jack Ripper was hideous, but that was exquisite compared to this freak of nature. :o
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Not sure I would want a double cyclamineus hybrid.
Jack Ripper is a seedling of Rip Van Winkle. Our bloom is far from perfect so it probably does not do it just but it is the first time we have actually flowered a miniature double. We have had seedlings of Rod's for a while but they have not flowered for us. Rod has a lot of different coloured miniature doubles. Eventually miniature doubles will have the same refinement as standards. In fact a lot of miniatures will just be miniature versions of the standards available today.
Rob, I would be suprised if a miniature double ever beat a Jackson's standard double. For those of you who are not in the daffodil world. Jackson are one of the top hybridisers of exhibition standards in the world. They grow their daffodils at Geeveston in Tasmania. A lot of our standards and intermediate seedlings have Jackson's daffodils parentage. I have some standard photos from our Canberra Show but I will limit myself to posting miniatures here unless they are something special like the split cups.
The cyclamineus double flower is a freak of nature but it is freaks of nature that lead to advances in hybridising. This is certainly the case for the splits. However, I don't think I will be breeding with the freak that results in half a daffodil!
We have very nice all yellow jonquilla hybrids out at the moment. I will take some photos at the weekend.
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Our season is starting to draw to an end now. We are doing quite a few crosses using N. triandus, N. rupicola, N. watieri and our fertile jonquilla hybrids.
I have attached photos of three of our fertile and very good jonquilla hybrids. I would describe them as intermediate sized as the flowers are only just a bit bigger than miniature and the stems and foliage are just a bit bigger than miniature. There is also a nice 7W-W in this series of hybrids and it is also very nice and fertile.
I found some nice 11W-P's of our own breeding. They almost look like Leslotto's!!
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Graham
This Year I have not said much but I do love he plants You show and Your explanation of parenthood and plans for them very educational.
I must say I even like the Rip van Winkel and the natural freaks. Very nice to see the variation in size, shape and colour and the variations of them o-w w-o y-y y-o etc. Sometimes I have problem believing in the colours but I know they are corrects. The split cup with red cup for example looked unreal but very nice :)
Hope to see more before the season ends
Kind regards
Joakim
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I do like the pale yellow ones.
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;D
A few more photos. We have flowered our first miniature double. It looks like it is going to be a 4W-P. Because it has an intermediate 4W-P as the pollen parent it has more form to it than seedlings from the Rip Van Winkle line. It is probably a sterile hybrid whereas the Rip Van Winkle line is actually fertile.
Joakim, I liked the intermediate 11Y-O shown by Graeme Davis enough to swap some of our miniature 6W-W's for that flower. I don't often desire pollen from other growers as we have a lot of coloured intermediates of our own but every so often you see something really nice.... The pollen has been put to good use on our seedlings.
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Warning to Lesley--this post includes photos of split cups.
If you look carefully at the seedling with nice flat cup of pink you will see the pollen has already been used.
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Hi a few bulbocodium photos for you.
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I'm going to get very embarrassed now, because I'm getting confused over something very basic. I thought a biclour was a white perianth and yellow or orange corona, and reverse bicolours were the other way round like, for instance, Binkie. So why are the reverse bolours also the same combination? :-[ ???
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Graham,
All very nice. I love that miniature double, and the split coronas, particularly the white and pinks. Thanks for the photos!!
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Mmmmmm..... I see my name has been taken in vain several times over recent days.
For the record, I'll happily go UN-immortalized if it means one less split cup in the world. Thanks though Graham. :)
Mercifully, though I was with Otto for a full week, I didn't see the double messed-up cyclamineus. Maybe he pulled it out before I noticed it there.There was so much else to see that was marvellous.
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Welcome back Lesley ;)
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Hi
Anne
The standard bicolor is W-Y and the standard reverse is Y-W. You are correct in that Y-O, W-P, W-O and Y-P are also bicolors. There are reverse bicolors in the reverse of these combinations. The more obscure bicolor is two different shades of yellow.
We have reverse bicolors (Y-W) in most forms of miniatures. By chance I had one more photo to post. A new reverse bicolor intermediate jonquilla hybrid. It is probably fertile. Unfortunately it does not have the form of its siblings.
We have lots of reverse bicolor bulbocodium hybrids but that is more to do with the parentage of our bulbocodium hybrids. I don't think they are as common as in our seedling boxes.
Lesley would we use your name in vain while you are off looking at Otto's plants!! ::)
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I'm no wiser, Graham. The 'reverse bicolour' bulbocodiums you show are all W-Y, and so not reverse are they? AAAArgh! ::) :P
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Confused, Anne? Yup, I am too! :'(
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Thank goodness it's not just me then!
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Hi
Anne, I think it is a case of mea culpa. I have wrongly referred to bicolor bulbocodiums as reverse bicolor bulbocodiums. My other references were correct.
It is almost the end of the season here now. However, there is still a lot of pollinating going on. I think I will stop tomorrow. I have to do some work on our new house.
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Hi
A few more photos.
Kind regards
Graham
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;D
Hi
A photo.
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Graham
The triandrus hybrids are just wonderful.
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Mmmmm that deep yellow one is very nice.
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Anne,
I was thinking the same thing. ;) The NTT with 4 florets is pretty nice too!! 8) None of the others are to be sneezed at either!! ;D