Hi All
Just to follow on from Peter Ramsay point about John Lee and Clives Postle growing using series of mini greenhouses this is my way of getting the late varieties to flower at the same time as the early ones. As you can see it is a very big clotch 12′ x 50′. If the weather stays dry it is my intentions to have the clotch erected by next Monday and it will stay over the tops of the daffodils until late Feb -early March or until the majority are 4- 6 inches high.
Again this is the only way I can get the buds early enough to give them time to develop to there full potential, before the seasons over.
I also agree, with only a few exception the best flower do come out of the ground. In the case of bulb performance the following year when grown in a pot against in the ground, I have found that if the bulb does not suffer stress after flowering and it has had enough nutrient during its growing cycle in most cases it will produce a top quality exibition flower. As one of my observations, if the flower has been cut of that bulb I think it take between 2-3 years to produce that size and quality flower, also believe the same happens to bulbs that are grown in the ground if the flower is cut. ( There’s an experiment for you all, plant in the ground a few bulbs of the same variety from div 1-4, cut the flowers on half of them to the same length as you would with your show flowers and do not cut any of the stem on the other half make sure you identify those that have been cut and those that have not been cut, then wait to next year and see how they perform) I think you will be surprised ! The bulbs in the ground ( if the flowers have not been cut) will generally perform year in year out, the only time I have some problems is when the offset start to develop along with the main bulb, the main bulb can sometimes be smaller than the one that was planted. I have taken the time to weight the bulb and offset combind they have increased in weight quite substantially. Again my educated assuption this is because both the bulb and the offset has had to compete for moisture and nutrient the young offsent has hade the lions share of both. Because I grow on a one year down cycle, I think I see more of this than if they werwe grown on a two year cycle, then I think the two bulbs would grow equally and at lifting time you would end up with the main bulb being mutch bigger that the ofset, but the offset would also be good also to produce a top quality show flower as well. I would like to know your view and observation on this subject.
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