DAFFODILS IN ENGLAND.

Shannon News, 12 October 1923, Page 4

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 poor one, and most disappointing m 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 rejnembor. Gales of bitterly cold north wind blew almost throughout the entire month, and for ten days heavy squalls of hail, snow and sleet accompanied the wind. So that late flowers suffered more 'even than the early ones. Good flowers were seen at the early R.H.S. shows from southern growers, and a Very big display of fine 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 unabl’e to 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 Blowers. Dealing with flowers as they opened here, I dare say that most people would think that the most striking thing that I had was Fortune, which opened on March 15th, only two or three days later than Golden Spur, and whs at its best before the bad weather began, 1 had five magnificent blooms from 'twoyear planted Ipilbs, and I believe mat they were exceptionally well grown; at all events I 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 tali. 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 the. other day, and found it three 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. Baekhurst’s garden, I have seen nothing like it or to approach it in quality. It is true, that .the red m many of the Backhurst flowers is much more intense and nearly approaching scarlet, but none of them have anything like such a fine 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 glowing embers in a fire, but is scarcely possible to describe. Mr. J. S. Arkwright, who does not yet possess Fortune, declared with emphasis that he would rather have a bulb of it than-all the reds in Baekhurst'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 fine; in fact I have never 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 does well, compel me to admit that there are few more lovely flowers. Perhaps the most interesting event to me was when I flowered Beorsheba for the first time. Even though the 'weather gavo it most cruel' treatment, including three or four days' cold stoimy 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 I was delighted with the vigour of its growth; then I found that it is really a quite early flower and extraordinarily lasting, due no doubt to its fine substance, inherited from its parent, White Knight. Then it has great size. I measured its blooms, and 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 on its / tall stem and does not droop like a good many of the whites. I can only say that, it is the flower of my dreams, and gives me even more pleasure than Foitune, but the white trumpets are my especial weakness. Tenedos also was wonderfully fine m spite of the bad weather, and I 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 Boy, which I was able to show in fair condition. In seedlings, flowering for the first time I do not seem to have anything, very special this year, but . of course the weather has been against these; no doubt some would have come much finer in better conditions. One of the best was a beautiful white trumpet, which opened in March and was bred from White Emperor.