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Is there any such thing as a perfect daffodil?

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Jaydee received a multi-part query from a not-yet-member. Since part of it involved the Daffodil Journal, she handed the whole thing off to me.

This individual, who lives in an apartment in New York, asked “Can there be a perfect daffodil?” She and her boyfriend have opposing views on this question.

I’ve thought through my answer, but what do you think I should tell her?  Other than, of course, join ADS immediately.

Loyce McKenzie

 

18 comments for “Is there any such thing as a perfect daffodil?”

  2. The perfect Daff is your current FAV . the one that’s won you blues consistently. the one that grew in a garden you loved. The one that makes you swoon.  In short, the PD is what you love right this second:))). FYI, there is no perfect boyfriend. Which is, of course Bill’s point.

     

  3. I was responding as if she meant a perfect cultivar, in a show. Of course Darren is describing the perfect daffodil to grow in our garden, which is something else again, and very possible.

     

  4. What we perceive as perfection to-day we regard as mediocrity to-morrow! Perfection is always in the future – why else do hybridisers strive for improvement? 

    Brian

  5. Surely there are show daffodils that can be improved very little. Banker and Impeccable for example. Indeed there may be improvements in colour etc to be made but their form is consistently perfect in my view. The problem with the perfect show flower is that they are incredibly boring.

    Those who belong to the NZNDS will have read an expanded article expressing this view.

    David Adams

  6. David, how right you are when you say “the problem with perfect show flowers is that they are incredibly boring.” Just ask the visitors to the show what flowers they like. They will not point at the top winners on the awards table; they’ll point at colorful blooms with unusual forms – the splits, doubles and ruffled cups.

  7. Thanks for your support Bob. There remains, however one small problem. I would desperately love to raise a Banker or Impeccable that won Best in Show all over the world. To me that would be the ultimate in daffodil breeding despite their lack of appeal to the general gardener.

    I suppose the perfect daffodil is an unbeatable show flower that appeals to the general gardener. Surely such a bulb could only come from Divisions 4 and beyond, most likely Division 11. Oops, how dare I suggest such a thing.

    Dave Adams

  8. David, I would add Division 1 (yellow trumpets) to the possible unbeatable show daffodils with great appeal to the gardener. Tradition is strong.

    Neither of us was dismissing our own dedication, as daffodil hybridizers, to creating a worldwide show champion as David Jackson, Elise Havens, Brian Duncan, and Clive Postles have done. On my visits to NZ,  I have seen several KIwi cultivars I believe could attain this prestige.

     

  9. I find the charge that exhibition flowers are “incredibly boring” most surprising especially from those who have been trying to breed show flowers. This seemed to follow from my remarks about the difficulty, indeed the impossibility of achieving ‘perfection’. My dictionary defines ‘Perfect’ as without fault etc. etc. I have seem many beautiful, immaculate and near perfect blooms but never one that could not be faulted on some criteria, and breeders need to look at all characteristics.

     David was in august company when he suggested that “there are daffodils that can be improved very little” – in about 1904  W Wilks, Secretary to the RHS, suggested something similar in a Preface to Rev. Joseph Jacobs Book ‘Daffodils’ when he wrote “I doubt if much further advanceis now either possible or wanted” ! What if Guy Wilson, Lionel Richardson, the Williams and those who followed had taken that view seriously?

     

  10. I would have to agree with Brian. There are many truly beautiful daffodils out there and each year many of you breed more amazing blooms. But I don’t believe a truly perfect bloom could ever be created. As the saying goes beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I perceive as beautiful others may disagree. We all have our favorites but we all will continue to strive to tweak, and improve and add to a bloom. If perfection had been reached and the perfect bloom had been created then there would be no need for shows, societies or meetings. If that was the case just think of the free time we would be left with. AND all the jobs around the house our wives, husbands or partners could find for us to do. I personally would stick with striving to improve and develop.

  11. Brian,

    When I say that perfect show flowers are boring, I mean boring to the public. For many years at our shows, I led visitors to the Awards Table to explain to them why these blooms took top honors. After turning them loose, they almost invariably drifted to admire the stuffed-cup 4’s, split-cups and ruffled-cup garden flowers. My explanation of daffodil beauty was generally without effect.

  12. Driving through the country yesterday It popped into my head that there really is not a “perfect” daffodil, but on the other hand that “Daffodils” are the “PERFECT FLOWER!” I was driving through Northeast Texas rural areas and farm after farm shows where the early settlers build a “first home” on a piece of property back in the 1830’s or so. EACH of these early home sites were of course abandoned by the original builders when a newer and “more perfect” second and third homes were constructed in a “more perfect” location on the farms. The locations of each of these abandoned home places is ONLY marked with the very earliest selections of species daffodils. By the 1890’s home sites you begin to see Sir Watkin and or a few paper whites. When you look around these abandoned home sites, all of the dreams of these early settlers have drifted away over time just as every hot forged, hand hammered nail have even melted away. You won’t even find the rocks that the wood beams sat upon to build these early cabins that today we would consider a “shack”. On occasion you will sometimes find a Bartlett or Orient Pear tree growing along side the species daffodils. ONLY the daffodils will survive the ravages of time and neglect for over 150 years of “being left behind”. They still carry the sweet scent of hope and dreams even though most relatives do not have a clue as to what their great, great grand parents even looked like today and or where their “first perfect dream home” was built. Often times these very first homes were converted into a chicken coop and or a barn for a milk cow when they could afford livestock!

    These daffodils survived unbelievable hardships as settlers traveled by wagon and sailing ships IF they owned a few dollars, but very often all of their belongings were being pushed across the south in a hand cart. These early settlers chose to carry daffodil bulbs with them from location to location as they sought out a new home. The daffodils must NOT have been the only flowers and or plants that early settlers brought with them BUT they are the ONLY flowers that survive being trampled by livestock. Bull Dozed and scattered when another generation gets rid of that “old non perfect shack” of a barn but still the daffodils will not only survive they will THRIVE when clumps are divided, buried, scattered and or even left exposed up on the surface of the ground during new home construction and or during road widening construction.

    Daffodils as the “perfect bloom”? Maybe not! But I challenge you to test ANY perfect flower of ANY other family of plants, haul them out to a “test field” and abandon them for several generations and I KNOW which one can still survive after none of us are even a distant memory!

    Keith Kridler
    Mt. Pleasant, Texas

  13. Beautifully said, Keith.  Thanks for sharing that with us.

     

  14. Keith,

    Excellent, you put the silly debate into perspective. Your piece deserves wider circulation.

    May I propose  it for the NIDG Newsletter?

    Brian

  15. Keith’s remarks are wonderful and should be published for all to see!

  16. Ethel, you are absolutely right–I was already moving in that direction!

    Loyce

  17. Keith –

    Simply a marvelous piece of writing.

    It belongs in Southern Living with multiple photos of old home sites with daffodils blooming everywhere.

    Linda W.

  18. I would like to add a comment:  think of all of the “new cultivars” that you have planted that are not here today.  In my garden, whick was planted long before I lived here  the ones that survived are N. italicus, N. telemonius plenus, N. x odorus, N. jonquilla and N. obvallaris. I realize that some of these may be virused but they continue to grow healthily on and on, there is something about certain flowers that gives them true stamina. These are the hardy ones that will survive long term.   Did they tell the new ones to go away?   What values do we give “perfect flowers”?

    Nancy Wilson

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