The eternal search for the perfect daffodil

LAST week I was chatting with Hazel Main of the Royal Horticultural Society of Aberdeen to find out how plans were coming along for their spring show.

It’s one of the country’s oldest societies, with roots going back to 1824, and its spring show, in the David Welch Winter Gardens next weekend, is a very popular event.

“The show takes place two weeks later than usual this year, so exhibitors are having to adjust their timings,” Hazel told me.

And timing is crucial when you are exhibiting flowers – bloom too early or too late and they won’t find favour with the judges.

I grow little ‘Tete-a-tetes’ for early colour; ‘Thalia’ because I love its pure white blooms and the native daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, because this is the flower that stirred Wordsworth to write his poem, but I’m just scratching the surface.

There are hundreds of different cultivars and species of daffodil and a whopping 13 separate horticultural classifications, and one of the purposes of spring shows is to display them at their best. To find out how that’s done I talked with Doug Stewart from Aberdeen, who has been growing and showing daffodils for many years.

Doug believes one reason his part of the country has such a strong tradition of growing daffodils is due to the weather.

He said: “The bulbs need to be chilled, and that means they must spend at least 33 days at 2°C or less.”

Doug’s daffodils are spread across his garden and three allotments and he moves them under cover or into the open, depending on how quickly he wants to bring them on.

Doug concentrates mostly on five of the 13 classifications, including large trumpets, large-cupped and cyclamineus daffodils – the ones with swept-back perianths (outer petals).

When he is selecting those destined for the show bench, he is looking for nothing less than perfection.

“The flowers should be identical and have no blemishes,” he told me.

That’s a tall order and demands a keen eye for detail as well as the experience to know how to get flowers to open in time for show day without being so far ahead that they are starting to go over.

Doug buys in fresh bulbs and grows them for two years before showing them. After they have flowered he gives them two or three feeds of tomato food at 10-day intervals, and leaves the leaves to die down completely before removing them.

“Then the pots get moved to a corner of one of my allotments when they can be left until its time to bring them into the greenhouse and give them a little heat to get them growing again.”

If you want to see how Doug and his fellow exhibitors fare this year, head to the Winter Gardens a week on Saturday and enjoy the spectacle, or seek out a similar show in your area and maybe, like me, you’ll catch the daffodil bug.