Quote from Kaye Radcliff talk

All (apologies for the cross-posting) –

At a roundtable discussion today at the ADS Convention on the history/spread of daffodils, Kaye Radcliff presented a talk on the early history of daffodils in Australia.

She provided a quote which many asked for, and as I obtained a typescript of her talk, said I would provide:

In the 1940s (during the second world war) the Hobart Horticultural Society Spring Show was opened by the Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ernest Clarke – who said (taken from the 1940 RHS Year Book) “In the midst of war and carnage, we who love such beautiful things as I see round me must keep our minds clear and centred on the beauties of life. In these times, the seriousness of which is not realised by many in Australia, and especially in Tasmania, we are told to carry on. We cannot carry on any better than by seeing that our recreations and amusements are of the sort which strengthen and do not weaken us for the more serious things which lie before us. This recreation strengthens our hearts and impels us to think of the survival of the beautiful things of the earth as something which must be cultivated and encouraged.”