Hello All,
We were saddened to hear of the loss of George Tarry. He has been a friend of ours since our first visit to the UK in 1977. After that visit we agreed to exchange coloured slide programmes, representing the best flowers seen at our respective shows, designed for presentation at daffodil meetings in our two countries. We did this for many years.
On our visits to the UK we were fortunate enough to stay with George and Rita on four occasions at their home at Neston on the Wirral in Cheshire. This gave us the opportunity to view his flowers and to learn of his ongoing interest in improving 1YR flowers. He was very interested in “Downunder” Daffodils and acquired a large collection of NZ and Australian daffodils which he promoted to his fellow growers. Amongst other things George generously donated engraved goblets to the winner of the British Raised Class for 15 years in NZ. We also learned of his dedication to the Daffodil Society of Great Britain of which he became Chairman. We helped him stage flowers at several UK shows and were pleased to help him with winning entries. It was George who supported the price limit classes in UK schedules – he was always a man seeking to support growers with a limited amount of ground and income!
His dedication to NZ varieties, reinforced by two visits to our country, led to a Life Membership of the NDSNZ – the only overseas person to be accorded this honour.
Over the years George sent us many seedlings mostly to help in improving 1YR daffodils. I was honoured to be allowed by George and Rita to name one, bred from his seedling Y9 which I still grow, – “George Tarry” (see Daffseek)
We kept in touch with George via phone and our annual Xmas cards in recent years. We know that he has had little to do with daffodils (and his other love chrysanthemums) since Rita’s death several years ago. George always believed in “giving his all” and once he couldn’t, he believed it best to let others, in his words, “get on with it”.
We have lost a friend and mentor – the daffodil world has lost a person of real integrity who worked tirelessly for the cause of the flower we all love.
Peter and Lesley