Fw: amateur enquiry about unusual double

Friends,
Jaydee sent me the following email and asked me to reply to Don.  I’ve done so, and asked if I might post his questions and photos to Daffnet.  He lives in southeast Australia.  I’ve never seen a daffodil like his.  There are a total of 6 photos.  I’ll send them in two emails.  He’s not on Daffnet, but you can reply directly to him at  title=
Mary Lou 
 
 

 


From:  title=

To: Jaydee Ager

Subject: amateur enquiry about unusual double

Dear Jaydee Ager,

 

I wonder if you or someone in your society might be able to help me.  I’m an amateur breeder of daffodils (pure hobby), and I think I’ve happened across something rare.  I have a seedling which as it has matured appears to have developed the ability to produce an extra whorl of petal-like growths from the base of an intact trumpet – it began with a single extra petal, but as the bulb has matured increased to five (nearly an entire whorl) I’m going to feed it up in the hope that next year it might be a complete set of six.  I’ve attached a few snaps.  It’s a pretty salmon-orange trumpet with cream tepals – the extra petal-like parts match the trumpet in colour.

 

Firstly, I’d like to register it but I’m not entirely sure how to fill out your forms (which I’ve downloaded) – particularly as I think it might be a sui generis.  Also, sad to say, I only know the seed parent.

 

Secondly, do you know if I’m right in thinking it is unique in being a double with an intact trumpet and the extra petaloid parts falling on the outside of an intact trumpet with intact unmodified stamens?

 

And thirdly, would you or your society know of any other variety remotely similar in character with which it might be productively crossed to bolster this characteristic (extra petalloid parts)?

 

It still has some distinct weaknesses.  The more-distal three sepals are not brilliantly wide or flat.  The extra petaloid parts seem to require a very mature bulb size, and even then do not  project out perpendicular to the trumpet but instead follow parallel to the trumpet – and thus require some “coaxing” to present conspicuously.  The petaloid bases, where they attach to the trumpet, do have an obliging concertina wrinkling which allows them to be “coaxed” into a more conspicuous position.  The one I photographed had a hole chewed in one extra petaloid-part by a caterpillar (whom I suspect was in residence deep in the trumpet!).

 

If you suspect someone else might be of greater assistance, please forward them this email with my email address and the attached photographs.

 

Kind regards,

 

Dan Simons

 

(PS Forgive the hotmail account naming and pseudonym; just seeking to protect privacy.  Is there a narcissus equivalent to tulipmania?  I wasn’t sure and thought it might be wise.)

1 comment for “Fw: amateur enquiry about unusual double

  1. Friends,
    Jaydee sent me the following email and asked me to reply to Don.  I’ve done so, and asked if I might post his questions and photos to Daffnet.  He lives in southeast Australia.  I’ve never seen a daffodil like his.  There are a total of 6 photos.  I’ll send them in two emails.  He’s not on Daffnet, but you can reply directly to him at  title=
     Mary Lou 
     

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