GARDENING

The earliest daffodils are already blooming in my garden. As has been the case with many plants this year, they seem to be flowering a little earlier than usual.

In the recent wet, windy and cold weather they have been putting on a brave show in the garden.

Even better, they are in a garden bed that’s in full view from my kitchen window so I can enjoy them from the warm shelter of the house brightening the winter view.

There are many species and varieties of daffodils so it is possible to have daffodils in flower in gardens from mid winter until mid spring. My early flowers have large yellow trumpets and petals and are probably ‘King Alfred’. Another early bloomer is ‘Golden Lion’.

While early daffodils are already in bloom, later flowering forms are only just starting to send up their grey green leaves. For a reliable late bloomer grow poet’s or pheasant’s eye narcissus (Narcissus poeticus). These can be in flower as late as October.

Although daffodils grow easily and multiply readily (see box, below, on caring for daffodils), it appears that gardeners wouldn’t have enjoyed such an abundance of varieties without the work of a long-ago UK horticulturist.

Just over a century ago James Kirkham Ramsbottom from the Royal Horticultural Society discovered that a disease that was wiping out daffodils was actually a tiny ‘worm’ we know as eelworm or nematode.

The problem had been affecting daffodil bulbs for decades and by the time Ramsbottom began his experiments to combat the pest back in 1917 he noted that without a cure “the bulb industry will soon cease to exist”.

As the microscopic pest worked its way into the daffodil bulb it caused the tissue to rot. He placed infected bulbs in hot water and discovered the pest was killed after heating bulbs for four hours at 45-46C.

The treatment he devised was widely published and used to sterilise thousands of daffodil bulbs throughout the world. Hot water treatments are still used to control some bulb pests.

LOCAL DAFFODILS

Daffodil breeding was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but it’s a hobby still pursued today by a new generation. Daffodil grower Janelle Noble, 37, is breeding daffodils in her Hobart garden. Like me, Noble also has early daffodils in flower. However, among the daffodil gems she is growing are hooppetticoat daffodils she has raised from seed that she hybridised in her garden.

The parents of these new daffodils were hand pollinated in 2016. The resulting seed was sown in containers and has flowered this year. Some have white flowers and others are buttercup yellow. Noble will assess the blooms to decide their merits. Early flowering and large flowers are two obvious features of these home-bred varieties.

Noble comes from a family of daffodil breeders and the parents of her new plants were also developed in Tasmania. She displays daffodils at the Claremont Daffodil, Camellia and Spring Flower Show in September each year.

Hoop-petticoat daffodils (Narcissus bulbocodium) are tiny daffodils with fine, tubular leaves. The plants grow just 10-15cm high and produce masses of flowers that are shaped like tiny hoop skirts. The trumpet forms the hoop skirt surrounded by six slender petals. While these little daffodils can be grown in gardens or among rockeries, they are an ideal choice for planting in shallow pots for a spot of winter colour.

CLAREMONT SPRING SHOW

See a wealth of daffodils and other blooms at the Claremont Daffodil, Camellia and Spring Flower Show, September 2-3, at Claremont Memorial Hall, corner of Bilton St and Main Rd, Claremont, Hobart. Exhibitors are welcome. For more information call Stan Walker on 6275 2285 or follow the Southern Tasmania Flower Show Group on Facebook.