Eye-Popping New Daffodils from New Zealand's John Hunter

I subscribe to the daffodil conversation from the American Daffodil Society. John Hunter, a daffodil breeder with almost 60 years of experience, recently bred and grew these two beauties.

These are two of the photos he sent to the list and they are posted here with his permission.

John Hunter's contact via email is jahunter@xtra.co.nz

and by mail is
John Hunter Daffodils Patons RoadRD 1, Richmond Nelson New Zealand

In a Suite 101 column Hunter recommended these daffodils:
Bandit 2W-YYO
Florence Joy 2W-W
Centrefold 3W-YYR
Dream Maker 3W-WWO Raised by Spud Brogden
Freya 2W-YY
Sunchild 2W-WY
Gold Imp 2Y-O Intermediate
Pearl Drift 11aW-W Raised by Colin Crotty
Kiwi Magic 4W-W
Baldock 4Y-P Raised by Max Hamilton
Sea Dream 3W-W
Little Jewel 3W-P
Jamore 2Y-R
Helen O'More Raised by the late J.A. O'More
Polar Sky 2W-WWP
Sulphur Monarch 1Y-Y
Polar Glow 2W-PPW
White Sapphire 2W-W
Polar Venture 2W-W
Polar Flame 3W-OO
Pink Topaz 1W-P
Polar Morn 3W-YWW
Polar Convention 3W-W
Absolute 2W-YYP
Elfin Moon 2W-W Intermediate
Elfin Dell 2W-P Intermediate

The ADS website has a directory where you can look up each variety to see what its bloom looks like. Click here to start searching Daffseek.

The Perfection of Spring

The beauty we find in the blooms of spring bulbs is partially because the winter look of the landscape is open, clear and softly colored in tans and greys.

Even when the slim green leaves of the bulbs emerge most of our time is still being spent indoors, braced against the wind and cold.

Then, in March, all this color emerges. Not so much the reds and purples that the heat of summer demands to capture our attention, but soft yellows, whites, and pinks are the colors of spring. Even the red of tulips is tempered by the delicacy of their translucent petals.
The scent of spring is the soft scent of daffodils and the sweet scent of hyacinths. Bright colors contrasting with ground that is mostly shades of brown.

It's no wonder that so many poems and songs have been written about spring. It has its own divinity, don't you think?

March 18th Flooding

How does your garden grow? Not much of a gardening day today in Northeast Oklahoma with 4-inches of spring rain! But there are seeds to sort and a potting area to straighten up after a marathon 2-days of planting and transplanting.

It is illogical to imagine that it will never stop raining but look at this creek - the water is almost up to the bottom of the bridge.

The flooded and impassable street is (looking north on) Gulick between Smith Ferry Road and 53rd Street.
If you live in an outskirts area like ours you know that each time a wooded area is cleared for another housing development, the thousands of trees that held the rain in check are no longer there to do their job so flooding is the result. Ah, progress, your stings are everywhere.

Yesterday it was overcast all day but I took a few backyard snaps of the spring flowers anyway.

The storms have beaten them down but they will bounce back when the rain stops.

The grow lights are on the plants in the shed (I estimate there are 1,000 babies out there right now) and I'm headed out to plant some geranium slips my cousin sent from Germany.

Daffodils

BONKERS FOR DAFFODILS
If you love the sight of daffodils in the spring, this fall will be the right time to add to your collection. I have a dozen varieties and add at least one more every year.

Mary Lou Gripshover, mgripshover@cinci.rr.com, has been a daffodil fan for more years than I have been gardening.
At one time, she wrote an online column about daffs.

Still available online, the ten articles' topics include her favorite daffs, the best suppliers of bulbs, getting blooms in January.

The bulb suppliers listed - Mitsch Daffodils, Oakwood Daffodils, Daffodils and More, Cheery Creek Daffodils, McClure and Zimmerman, Brent and Becky's Bulbs and Old House Gardens.

Read them all at
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/daffodils

From Gripshover's online bio, "I now grow between 700 and 1000 cultivars of daffodils. I do a bit of hybridizing, and have registered several daffodils.
In the intervening years, I served in many positions for The American Daffodil Society, including editing The Daffodil Journal for eight years. I was awarded the ADS Silver Medal for service to the ADS in 1984. Later I served eight years as that Society's Executive Director. The Royal Horticultural Society was kind enough to award their Peter Barr Memorial Cup, for work with daffodils, to me in 1993. In 1999, the ADS awarded their Gold Medal to me for work with daffodils, and in 2004 I was elected president of the ADS. I've gardened in Columbus, Ohio; Franklin, Tennessee; and Santa Clara, CA; before coming to Milford (Zone 5-6), and the daffodils made the move each time. Does that qualify for a "passion for daffodils" or what!"