DAFFODIL DISPLAY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21205, 30 August 1940, Page 9

DAFFODIL DISPLAY

SHOW IN HAMILTON NORTH ISLAND FIXTURE GREAT RIOT OF COLOUR In conjunction with the Spring Show of the Hamilton Horticultural Society, the North Island Show of the National Daffodil Society will be held in Hamilton next Thursday and Friday. The fixture will be held in the Bledisloe Hall, which, being spacious and well lighted, is admirably suited to the occasion. To many people the word daffodil suggests merely a yellow flower that blooms in the spring, but visitors to the show will be amazed by the riot of colour with which they will be confronted. From purest white the different varieties pass through all shades of lemon and yellow deep amber. In the Incomparabilis and Barrii classes will be seen cups with all degrees of colouring from a faint margin to intense red throughout. Even the pink cupped daffodil is slowly making its appearance as the result of the persistent work of hybridists all over the world. Raising From Seeds The hobby, or as it has become with many growers, the business of hybridising and raising daffodils from seed, is intensely interesting. Naturally, daffodils set very little seed but respond readily to rgrtificial pollination. Care must be exercised in deciding what varieties are to be crossed and the most perfect flowers should be selected. New varieties may appear in the raisers’ catalogue at £lO a bulb or more. The price may seem high until it is realised that a considerable area of ground has to be used in raisin each year’s seedlings, that five or six years’ labour may be involved before the first flower is produced, and that it may then be another four or five years before the raiser has sufficient stock to permit of bulbs being offered for sale. Over 6000 Varieties In the matter of classifying and naming of daffodils a tremendous amount of work has been done by the Royal Horticultural Society. The published list now in use contains the names of over 6000 varieties with the classification of each and the name of the raiser. Trumpet varieties, that is, those having the trumpet or cup as long as or longer than the perianth segment, comprise division 1, which is subdivided into IA, IB and IC, according to whether the flower is all yellow, all white, or bicolour. Imcomparabilis varieties comprise division 2. Here the cup or trumpet is shorter than the perianth, but more than one third its length and there is yellow or red in the flower.

Flowers with the same colouring but with the cup less than a third the length of the perianth are known as Barrii, and form division 3. Those varieties With cups shorter than trumpet varieties and having colours paler than yellow, that is, white throughout or white perianth with lemon cup, are known as Leedsii and comprise division 4. These four divisions comprise the bulk of the flowers seen in a daffodil exhibition, but there are six other divisions including Triandrus, Tazetta (bunqh flowered), Poeticus and Double. In the South Island extensive use is made of daffodils for naturalising on the grass slopes of parks and private gardens. It is pleasing to note that the Hamilton Domain Board has set aside an area at the Lake for this purpose, and the slope has recently presented a very fine sight. In the course of a few years the bulbs will multiply and form large clumps which will give Hamilton a spring feature of very great beauty.