The Oregon Daffodil Society has three shows this year — in Amity, in Albany, and in Portland. The last of the three was in Portland this weekend at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. The show was a joint show with the local rhododendron society. It was the early rhododendron show, while the main rhododendron show is in May. The rhododendrons were inside a building shaped with a Quonset hut. The daffodils were outside the building wrapping around half the building. There was a large overhang to keep the rain off the daffodil area as well as walls about 5 feet high. The part from 5 feet up to the overhang was open, so we had to tape some of the exhibits to the bench to keep the wind from blowing them over during the night. The cold of course was good for the daffodils but no so comfortable for the people. The Oregon season has been late this year, so people did not have as many blooms for the Portland show as they would ordinarily have had for the first weekend in April. Of course, the early rhododendron show was also smaller than usual. This was not surprising as there were few rhododendrons in bloom even though this was the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.
Considering that there might still be a risk of snow over the Siskiyou Summit (it turns out the pass was dry) and that the coast highway can also be troublesome in bad weather (a landslide closed the coast highway last Wednesday), I decided to fly to Portland rather than drive. Consequently I took only as many daffodils as I could conveniently pack as checked luggage, about 45 stems. I entered three collections of 5, two sets of three, and the rest as single stems. Nevertheless, I won enough ADS awards that I feared I would be invited not to return next year; however, the Oregon Daffodil Society folks were very gracious and assured me I would be welcome next year.
The Gold Ribbon for best standard daffodil went to Lehiam 2Y-Y which was in my yellow collection. This is not a brand new cultivar, but it may not be well known in the U.S. as it is a New Zealand cultivar bred by Colin Crotty. I remember seeing it in the New Zealand local shows and thinking it was a good exhibition cultivar available at an affordable (in New Zealand) price.
Kirby Fong