General

Early Season

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Early, for sure. For folks who exhibit, messy, too. Here, in Zone 7,
I picked a lovely cantabricus on Christmas day. Golden Avalanche has
buds 10″ above ground, and Polly’s Pearl and Avalanche have foliage at
least a foot high, although no buds (yet). Many bulbs of lower
divisions down a year or more have foliage emerging. I may add more
mulch, with temperatures certain to reach 10 above or lower at some
point during the winter. As of now, it looks like a large proportion of
the flowers at the Convention will come from north of here.

4 comments for “Early Season”

  1. Hello everyone,

    The daffodil season is ahead here also. Of course I am further south that the previous posters. Have a number of miniature 1′s and 6′s showing buds. Lots of folage showing. The past few days have been in the 60′s F. But cooler weather is moving in tonight, 30′s tonight with temps in the 20′s tomorrow night. This should slow things down if these cooler temperatures prevail.
    Happy New Year, Everyone

    Larry Force in Southaven, Mississippi

  2. I am also in Zone 7 and have the same observations as Bob Huesmann, with the same cultivars. Avalanche and Polly’s Pearl have 12″ of foliage up and have had this for the past 6 weeks, despite added layers of mulch. They are the only ones with such tall growth, but many bulbs both old and new are showing tips of foliage, though I have seen no buds anywhere.<br />

    Janet

  3. Hello folks,
     
    I read with interest the comments on early foliage growth and possible flowering. I suggest that you review the postings from New Zealand in August 2011. They are almost word for word.
    In 2011 my Bambi flowered six weeks early, in July, then I had nothing out for the NI National, second week in September, our Christchurch show had record low entries, the North Island propped up the SI National the last weekend of September and my personal peak season was the second week of October, well after the shows, with flowers here well into November.
     
    Nature has a way of making daffodil growers grumpy and frustrated as it takes its own merry way. Remember too that tazettas have foliage almost twelve months of the year.
     
    My money is on the Northern Hemisphere flowering season being no more than a week earlier than normal, maybe apart from the early flowering tazettas and bulbocodiums.
     
    Dave

  4. Well since I find what everyone else is saying interesting
    I will add my observations- I seem to have lost Polly’s Pearl
    and have not tried Golden Avalanche to my recollection,
    But I have only the usual couple of dozen cultivars with
    foliage up, unfortunately I quit trying to record which cultivars
    were up early when a season’s worth of labels washed off
    for me. I do know that some are 1 and 2 Y-Y cultivars and a
    few are unregistered seedlings which come up early although
    their siblings do not.
    I cannot grow division 10 out of doors though I keep trying-
    they sometimes do not come up at all but usually struggle along
    for several seasons attempting to grow foliage in weather not at
    all suited to such an enterprise- fall foliage tends to get frozen
    and wind burnt here south of St Louis.(I would place cantabricus in
    division 10 though I suppose it really lives in div 13)
    I did find the bulbs I had intended to give a friend to plant in their front yard-
    too late to share :o((.
    Amazing how much smaller they appeared after growing roots in the bucket!
    I do not believe there was any added moisture- just the transpiration
    from the bulbs, but those below the top layer made a mess growing roots into
    masses within their bags and into adjacent bags. I followed my own advise and
    separated each bulb and planted them all into the ground( this was a week
    before my nephew came and we planted over a thousand bulbs individually-
    not in the trench I had had dug, but into individual spade holes)
    He would be very useful if he did not have to spend so much time in his school :o))
    So, I have a planting to watch over the next few years to see how the bulbs recover,
    I will be amazed if any bloom this, or even next, season.
    please keep the photos coming

    John

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