Hello Everyone,
In between observing the lovely blooms posted on Daffnet, we are at the other end of the growing scale and have begun planting. Progress is slow as we have showery weather but at least we’ve started. We are very aware that this year’s planting will still be in the ground when our overseas guests visit in 2012 on the World Convention Tour so we are being extra careful!
I guess everyone has their own system of planting. Ours has developed over the years – initially it was a bit haphazard but as our seedlings started to appear we became a little more organised. One of our turning points was at the 1984 World Daffodil Championships. We attended a symposium on daffodil breeders and one of the questions was on the order of planting. Max Hamilton responded by saying that he planted the bulbs in no particular order – just the way the came out of the shed. David Jackson, who had dominated the show with wonderful flowers commented that his seedlings were the most important part of his crop and that seed were planted first and then his seedlings followed. This was a salutary lesson to us. Now we do much the same as David – seed first, then the little bulblets from the seedling boxes, then our seedling bulbs in chronological order starting with the youngest. We then move onto our own named varieties which are planted in alphabetical order. When they are completed we finish up with bulbs acquired from other growers, also planted in alphabetical order. All of this helps when we come to lifting and storing where the same system is applied. In the long run this saves time.
We would be very interested in other growers’ systems but in the meantime keep those photos coming – we enjoy them.
Peter and Lesley