Hi Daffnetters, The Kiwi season has been going for about a month now; no show flowers but the northern markets are all well stocked with yellow trumpets, Erlicheer, Sol D,Or and a few redcups, just starting. With the very snowy recent weather in the South Island, I would suspect there is little daff growth, with North Island flowers supplying the main markets.
Harold Koopowitz was correct in noting the great quality in the yellow trumpets Graham Phillips has been posting. He has excellent form, the results of thirty plus years breeding,in his early season flowers. Graham and I have just recently finished writing articles on early yellow T,s for the NZ D S Annual, where there is a strong feature on all aspects of Yellow T,s. We have been exchanging seedlings of very early market flowers for about 20 years, refreshing our breeding lines and swapping ideas. We have recently had many long phone discussions on our efforts, the merits of different lines and, importantly, what we can still hope to achieve, in preparation for our writing. We feel we have advanced our season by about four weeks; the future time gains will be in slower increments but can be achieved Form and stem length are other areas for improvement; Graham is well ahead of my seedlings in the form department.
Photos of a very early JFM 1988 seedling, garden name of June Joy; very golden,very early, opens well. Started early June this year, — last pick today..
Cheers John.