THE GARDEN

Otaki Mail, 5 October 1923, Page 3

THE GARDEN

DAFFODILS IN ENGLAND. Mr. G. L. Wilson, one of the most noted growers in the British Isles, writes as follows to his daffodil growing friends in New Zealand: ! This season, 1923, has been a very i poor one, and most disappointing in the matter of weather. March was a very beautiful month, and early daffodils came in very quickly, and there was every prospect of a very early season, but in April the weather became very stormy and cold, and flowers got much abused and damaged as soon as they opened, and the necessary warmth and himidity to develop the blooms to their fullest size was never experienced this season. The month of May was even worse than April, being quite the coldest May that I can ever remember. Gales of bitterly cold north wind blew j I almost throughout the entire month, and for ten days heavy squalls of hail, I snow and sleet accompanied the wind. So that late flowers suffered more even j than the early ones. Good flowers were i seen at the early R.H.S. shows from I southern growers, and a Very big display of line blooms at the London show early in April. I reserved myself for the Midland show, and so did not see any of the London shows. Some growers were unable lo show at Birmingham as their flowers had been ruined by bad weather by that time. Brodie, of Brodie. whose garden is in the north of Scotland, is later than anyone else, and tells me that it has been the worst season in his experience. Glorious New Flowers. Dealing with flowers as they opened here, 1 dare say that most people would thinly, that the most stwiang thing that I had was Fortune, whicn opened on March loth, only two or three days later than Golden Spur, and was at its best before the bad weather began. 1 had live magnificent blooms from twoyear planted bulbs, and 1 believe niatj ihey were exceptionally well grown; at | all events 1 was simpy amazed at its almost incredible splendour every time I looked at it. The largest flower was over four and three-eighth inches across and twenty-seven inches tail. The perianths were of superb form, much overlapping, and perfectly flat, standing at right angles to the great bold crown, and the flowers have great substance and are very lasting, while the colour is simply glorious, i shaded the blooms to preserve the colour as long as possible. I measured a stem carrying a seed pod Ihe other day, and found it throe feet in height. It is an absolutely unique plant, and, amongst all the very high coloured ones I have . seen this year and last year at shows and Mrs. Backhursl 's garden, I have seen nothing like it or to approach it I in quality. It is true that the red in • many of the Backhurst flowers is much I more intense and nearly approaching scarlet, but none of them have any- j thing like »ueh a hue perianth as Fortune either in form or colour. The actual colour of the crown of Fortune is a wonderful clear growing red- ! " orange that suggests t glovving embers j in a lire, but is scarcely possible to | describe. Air. J. S. Arkwright, ivnu does not yet possess Fortune, declared with emphasis that he would rather have a bulb of it than all the reds in Backhurst's garden. I must not give the impression that I am disparaging them, as some of them are astonishing flowers—"staggerers" I have heard them called. Amongst the early flowers here Maximus was exceptionally line; in fact I have never j seen it so good, and a patch of it was a most lovely sight. The exquisite grace and glorious colour of its flowers and blue-green foliage, when it uoes ■ well, compel me to admit that there are j ■ few more lovely flowers.

Perhaps the most interesting event to 1 me was when I flowered Beersheba for . the first time. Lven though the wea- : ther gave it most cruel treatment, in- i eluding three or four days' cold stormy rain from the east, heavily charged with soot from collieries across the Channel, which left all my flowers simply filthy, it confirmed all my previous ! high opinion of its virtues. First of all j I was delighted with the vigour of its growth; then 1 found that it is really a quite early flower and extraordinarily lasting, due no doubt to its fine substance, inherited from its parent, Wnite Knight. Then it has great size. I measured its blooms, ami found that they were five inches across. It has beautiful quality and texture and is very white, and I feel that my description would fail to do justice to its stately beauty or form. The great perianth'is very clean cut, and stands perfectly flat and at right angles to the slender graceful trumpet, right from the time the flower opens until it is dead; the flower is well displayed on its tall stem and does not droop like a good many of the whites. I can only say that it is tho flower of my dreams, and gives me even more pleasure than Fortune, but the white trumpets are my especial weakness. Tencdos also was wonderfully fine in spite of the bad' weather, and 1 was able to take twelve of its great blooms (after washing them) to Birmingham, where it caused quite a sensation, staged in the centre of my non-competitive group. I put the flowers up for an award, and they gained a unanimous award of merit.

I also got an award for a lemon yellow trumpet seedling, Honey j-.oy, which I was able to show in fair condition. In seedlings, flowering for the first time I do not seem to have any : thing very special this year, but of course the weather has been against these; no doubt some would have come much liner in better conditions,

One of the best was a beautiful white trumpet, which opened in March and was bred from White Emperor.