Animal and plant breeders have known for several centuries just how easy it is to change the shape of biological organisms. In essence the breeder mates like with like and hopes that in the variations of the offspring one can find more of the desired characteristics. One then breeds those together and so on. It is called line breeding. So I have tried to widen the tepals in N. miniatus. In the wild the flowers of N. miniatus often resemble twisted airplane propellers but occasionally one comes across an individual with flat tepals. When I mated two or these flat tepal types together I obtained a population where the majority of their offspring had flat tepals and there was some variation in the width of the tepals. Two from this generation with the widest petals were named ‘Excellent’ and ‘Best’ and then these two were bred together. This year those offspring flowered for the first time and now there are plants with petals way wider than any found in the field.
Wild type flat N. miniatus in Spain
- Line-bred N. miniatus for petal width.
- Not only increased petal width but now tepal notches too.
Hello All,
Very interesting post Harold. I first learned about line breeding from John Lea who produced wonderful seedlings of great health, size and substance wich were line bred. Since our stay with the Lea’s many years ago I have followed this system and have been rewarded. Of course not all my crosses are line bred – if two blooms look they are good partners they will be crossed. And John’s system certainly worked for him! He never made more than 30 crosses a year and look at what he showed in his winning Engelheart entries! It has certainly worked for me and as Harold has shown the characteristics you want in a show daffodil are reached quicker by line breeding. And Daffseek has made it all much easier nowadays!
Daff foliage is starting to go down here – will soon be lifting!
We visited the National Rose show on our way home from grandaughter viewing in Wellington and it was good to see daff lovers Michael and Marian Brown taking out the major prizes together with Derrol White. It seems to me that Iwe will need to change our names to a colour in order to compete with these great rose growers. How does Peter and Lesley Gray sound!!! ? Our roses have suffered from neglect thanks to the World Daff Convention and tour but we did do OK in local shows.
Peter and Lesley
Both are truly superb Harold! Exceptional forms of the here to fore, little seen, lovely fall/winter blooming species. Wonderful examples of what a keen, discerning “eye” and three generations of careful and painstaking line breeding can achieve.
It is also sad, in my opinion, that such careful and painstaking work over three generations MUST be “submerged” within the hybrids of Div. 7 based on the current rules of nomenclature. Many other plant groups carefully conserve and maintain exceptional forms of the species. I wish it were so in the genus Narcissus.
Some may not realize the fact that the current rules require that any clonal species form that is tracked under a designator, number, or name MUST be assigned to it’s respective Division and can’t be “legally” exhibited in Div. 13.
For the members that hybridize, this makes our ability to even identify and keep track of excellent forms of the species a most difficult task. Superior forms of the species are the most necessary “building blocks” used to create finely formed hybrids.
Steve –
For those of us less conversant with hybridization rules of nomenclature …..
In DTSG, it lists N. miniatus under Section Serotini not Section Jonquilla.
Please tell us what characteristics force N. miniatus into Div. 7.
Thanks!
Linda
Hi Linda,
You are, of course, correct. There is no Section in a show schedule for N. serotinus or any Fall/Winter blooming Narcissus. Some of us have played around with a potential Show Schedule for a Fall/Winter Blooming Daffodil Show but nothing has yet come to fruition. Harold’s splendid, remarkably improved flower was not the best example I might have chosen to illustrate the mentioned “difficulty”.
The “difficulty” that I see as a hybridizer might be better illustrated by a flower of my own raising and registration. ‘Jon B. Good’ is a 7Y-Y. It is (as near as I can tell) “pure”, straight, N. jonquilla. It’s antecedents arose from the Mitsch, ‘N. jonquilla Select strain. I carefully selected and crossed or backcrossed the best forms that I raised from crossing the superior Mitsch strain. After four generations and nineteen years of work, some were (are) honestly exceptional forms of N. jonquilla. The particular clone selected as ‘Jon B. Good’ was carried under both a seedling number and ultimately named.
As such and according to the rules, it can no longer be shown as a Species Jonquilla in Div. 13. It must (if one is to be honest) be shown in it’s Division (i.e.. Div. 7) and so is “submerged” into a huge hybrid group as far as exhibition.
All have made interesting comments. If either of these were to be registered and if they were to be shown they would be as Div. 3 W-O.
harold
Some of the contributors to this discussion know of my reservations about so called line breeding. I agree that it is a most effective way to get rapid results when targeting a specific objective – that is the good news! But such tunnel vision, if pursued over a prolonged period inevitably leads to in-breeding. Accordingly, whilst the ‘good traits’ may be achieved and enhanced in progeny of the related parents it is also inevitable that any ‘poor traits’ in the parents will also be exaggerated and perpetuated. One of the first ‘poor traits’ to emerge is a lack of vigour which can range from almost imperceptible to dramatic. Many growers, particularly in less favoured, hasher climates, have recognised this for many years. I was brought up in an animal breeding environment and the stories of the results of line/in breeding, in Ayrshire cattle in particular, were were sufficiently horrific to fix my mind on the dangers. Having said that, I would probably have done exactly as Harold has done, – it happens in the wild in any case – Harold is just using his powers of observation to help things along. indeed I do similarly with other species, but if I may, I would just caution that it should not be carried too far with related clones – I think we should ‘breed out’ again as soon as possible! If we examine pedigrees of modern hybrids it will be noted that a lot of ‘line breeding’ happens in any case – without deliberate policy.
I should avoid controversy!! :-)
Brian