Here is a shot of a drift of Ceylon. Each bloom has six little curved solar reflectors cupped and bent just right to reflect sunlight back onto the sides of the trumpet. The trumpet is flared to ricochet the rays of the sunlight to the bottom of the trumpet which has a darker green eye to capture and absorb the heat.
Red rims bred into trumpets often absorb so much heat from the sun on a clear day and give off more moisture than the plant can push to the edges of the trumpet. Everyone showing daffodils knows that you need to pick the red cupped daffodils before the sun burns the darker color creating a dried up area along the rims.
It would be pretty easy to use the infrared thermometers to get temperature readings on the various parts of the daffodils.
Keith Kridler in the north east corner of Texas. Frost on the daffodil blooms this morning 35*F (2*C) with 70*F (21*C) predicted for this afternoon again.
What fun to know that each daff is its own little greenhouse and that the insects appreciate the warmth! I have a bud on a species tazetta planted out in the raised beds that has always frozen in bud (I have to check the label to see which one), so I put a little cover over it in hopes to see it bloom this year. Yesterday I also put two coldframes on two blocks of hybrid tazettas planted to fit the coldframes; some of the foliage on them is about 6-8″ high. It’s almost December and we have yet to have a hard freeze.
I will have to remember to borrow the digital infrared thermometer from work when things start to bloom.
Becky Fox Matthews that daffy girl near Nashville
— Becky Fox Matthews Educator/Special Projects Manager Adventure Science Center http://www.adventuresci.com
2nd Vice President American Daffodil Society, Inc. http://www.daffodilusa.org http://www.daffodilusastore.org http://www.daffseek.org Middle Tennessee Daffodil Society http://www.daffodiltn.org