Daffodil Types, Intermediates

‘Bonnie’s Gem’

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Can anyone tell me if there is a cultivar called ‘Bonnie’s Gem’, or has it now been officially registered as ‘Bonnie’s Jewel’?  I was told that ‘Bonnie’s Gem’ might be an intermediate.
Thanks,
Mary Lou

4 comments for “‘Bonnie’s Gem’”

  1. Hi Mary Lou,
     
    Noel McIsaac raised and exhibited Bonnie’s Jewel which he exhibited in the Intermediate section at National shows. Other growers still exhibit this cultivar. In 1994 and 1995 Noel won prizes with Bonnie’s Gem in the Intermediate section of National shows. Although I do not have a record of what cultivars were entered in the show it is interesting that there is no record of both cultivars winning prizes at the same show.
    Peter Ramsay or John Hunter may well be able to recall better. All I can say is that the raiser exhibited flowers using both names in different seasons. I can’t say if it was the same cultivar but I have a gut feeling that I did see them both at one show.
     
    Dave 

  2. Hi Mary Lou

     

    I still grow both Bonnie’s Gem and Bonnie’s Jewel.  They are very similar, although in my conditions Bonnie’s Gem displays a little more soft orange in the cup centre.  Here the YOO is not as pronounced in either variety as the classification indicates but I have seen it cleanly and clearly YOO grown by others in perhaps warmer conditions.  They flower pretty much on the same day each year.  Bonnie’s Jewel is far more prolific in flowering and bulb multiplication in my conditions.  It is the only one that is on the NZ intermediate list of cultivars.  A superb flower of Bonnie’s Jewel won the South Island national premier intermediate for Alan Brown, an Otago grower, some years ago at Te Anau.

     

    Regards

    Noeline McLaren

    Balclutha, New Zealand

     


  3. Hi Mary Lou,
    Bonnies Jewel was raised by Noel McIsaac in NZ and was bred from Crescendo x Falstaff. Noel left NZ a few years ago to live in Australia and on his departure he gave me a number of his seedlings and his record books. As far as I can see there is no seedling that has been given the name of Bonnies Gem, perhaps it was just a name given by Noel  to a seedling at the time of a Show.
    Regards Robin Hill, Cambridge NZ
    .
    —

  4. It seems that the story of Bonnie’s Gem is slowly materialising. Noeline McLaren writes that she has both Gem and Jewel and that Gem increases slowly so was probably never marked for registration. It must have been a genuine name though as Malcolm Wheeler won a bulb of Bonnie’s Gem in the 1994 Daffodil Ballot. One would say that, at that stage, Noel McIsaac is the only one who could have donated the bulb to the ballot.
     
    Dave

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