Hi All –
My friend Clay has put me on the spot. Yes, I did take pictures at Gloucester. Unfortunately, they are not of the head table. I regret that now, as the winning entries were excellent, and the people who entered them deserve the recognition of their ADS friends. My purpose at Gloucester, however, was to photograph and study the ADS Historic cultivars exhibited there. I have recently been developing a PowerPoint program on historics mostly using photos on DaffSeek. However, I was using these photos and supporting descriptions without having actually seen or grown many of the flowers. What was I missing? What key identifying feature was omitted in the photographs or the registration description? It was to rectify this gap in my knowledge that I decided that I had to attend and photograph as many shows as I could this year. So far I have attended the show in Murphys, CA, Barco, NC, and Gloucester, VA. in the last several weeks, and will attend several more this season.
And it is proving more difficult than I ever imagined. Some of the show entries are wrongly labeled. Some are not typical and some are miss-judged. But where else but Gloucester would I have a better chance of increasing my knowledge? Here is one of the first towns settled in America Early in the 17th century and one that by local tradition was settled by women who smuggled daffodil bulbs into the country sewn into their skirts. It has a long history of growing daffodils both for cut flowers and bulbs.
The next messages will have some of the images taken at Gloucester, one image per message. The first photo is of Odoratus (8W-Y 1936) entered by Skip and Margaret Ford of Richmond, VA and receiving a blue. The second is of Colleen Bawn (1W-W 1885) entered by Mitch and Kate Carney of Boonsboro, MD. This I had not seen before and was immediately taken by its grace and beauty. My photo doesn’t do it justice, but Kirby Fong’s photo in DaffSeek captures it well. Number three is a shot of White Pearl (8W-W 1860) and Grand Monarque (8W-Y 1780) entered respectively by Nancy Fuchs of Burgess, VA (red ribbon) and Melanie Paul of Hampton, VA (blue ribbon). Since I have trouble with tazettas, I try to include several cultivars in the same frame, thus giving me some sense of relative size. The next two photos are of Lucifer (2W-YOO 1890). It is narrower and the petal edges are more reflexed than any of the DaffSeek photos except for that of Sara Van Beck. I’m including two photos of the same entry to give the viewer a little more to work with. The exhibitor was Mary Neuhouse of Dutton? and she got a red ribbon for her effort.
White Lady (3W-Y 1887) is often confused with other daffodils and appears to be quite variable in form. “FF” or “77” (you know who you are) entered a lovely blue-ribbon specimen of White Lady and I’ve sent two shots of it. Susan Perrin of Mare? Neck?, VA won a red ribbon with Aflame (3W-YOO 1938). It is striking but I’m told the cup fades with the slightest provocation. After Aflame is Golden Spur (1885) a 1 Y-Y about which A.M. Kirby in his 1910 book “Daffodils Narcissus and How to Grow Them” says “if (I) could have but one daffodil (I) would chose this” . Another historic I’ve never seen is Covarack Perfection (2W-YYO 1930) a white-ribbon entry by CeCi Brown of Gloucester, VA. Another new-to-me daffodil was Brilliancy (3Y-YYO 1906) entered by Ms Simon whose name and town name was obscured by a yellow ribbon. Quite distinctive. Next follows a beautiful example of the highly variable Double Campernelle (4Y-Y 1601). These two photos of this blue ribbon exhibit show it at its best.
Jim Taylor of Ruther Glen, VA entered a lovely (1W-WWY 1927) named Content. It is not often seen, but the blue ribbon is well-deserved.
I have to say that it is a wonderful show. I even got a blue for a vase of 3 splits. And both coming and going, I had a delicious bowl of oyster stew in Tappahannock, VA. A wonderful day!
Life is good!
Paul Botting
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We had a great daffodil show at Gloucester, VA yesterday March 27, 2010. Paul Botting from WDS was there taking pictures. I’m not sure if anyone will post the results on the show or not – or post pictures.
However, I felt good and am back to my old habits of strongly showing collections after spending last year winning Silver Ribbons with 3 stems and single stems and a few miniature collections. Last year on crutches and canes at the show hall and collecting daffodils in the garden was the last time I want to do that.
Yesterday I entered collections of five for the div 1, div 2, div 4, div 6, div 8, red white and blue, orange/red cup collection, Maroon Ribbon, miniatures Lavender and Aqua, and the Havens and the Quinn Award. I will tell you that I didn’t get the Silver Ribbon because it disappeared off the head table, but I will tell you that I won the most blue ribbons in the show. It felt so good to be back showing a lot of daffodils and collections which is my specialty. Showing is the fun of daffodils, blue ribbons are a side effect of having great daffodils.
Enjoy the remainder of the daffodil season and HAVE FUN!!!
Clay
Clay Higgins
