The first daffodils of the autumn have been showing for the last week or so despite the hot dry weather. These are from pots, however, that have been watered. Except for a paperwhite or two nothing has come up in the planter boxes or garden yet.
The first picture is N. x alleniae and this is actually the isotype specimen. It is the natural hybrid between N. miniatus and N. viridiflorus. Because it is pale green by camera does not like to recognize it hence my hand but that gives some sense of scale too.
Here is one of the original collected N. miniatus, now 15 years in cultivation. I thought it was quite good when I first saw it but it has been surpassed by many of its offspring. They have still to emerge.
Back in about 1998-9 my friend Yves Aubry found a plant of N. miniatus with an orange streak down the center of the inner tepals. we called it ‘Yves Find’. This has been selfed through several generations. to make what we call “Yves babies” (not a registered name. Here we have two first bloom seedlings from 2nd generation seed collected and sown in 2011. Nearly all the seedlings show the streaks but flower quality is very variable.