I called on Wilf Hall late last week ; we had a few cold days and I wondered how the tazettas and the grower were handling the abrupt arrival of winter .Wilf was out in the bulb patch , surrounded by a mass of beautiful tazettas , all well ahead of schedule after our record warm June .The cold spell has since slowed growth considerably but as expected , many tazettas with show potential were already in bloom . I am currently flowering Avalex ; one of the best around and so inquired of Wilf about it,s fertility .
An attractive lemon perianthed seedling told us it was seed fertile – pollen fertile was uncertain , Wilf believed it was but had mixed some labels .The seedling flowers were about 40 – 50 mm with a nicely proportioned soft orange cup .
CAMPINO was registered in 2013 ; quite a good number of flowers per head for a Matador seedling .It has a very attractive flat style of cup , – just a little different from most tazettas .
Perhaps the standout early seedling was an all yellow — WT G – 100 – 2 .This well presented , show style head had 13 florets of an attractive soft yellow with a disc cup that is just a little more golden .Wilf is pleased with this one and it will be registered soon .
There was , as expected , a host of Avalanche seedlings in flower ; WT A – 21 – 1 was a strong grower , a nice head and very clean colours .Wilf is continuing to give us a beautiful array of new tazettas but it was very easy to understand his frustration at their earliness .The show season is 5 weeks from starting and to breed tazettas to flower that late is obviously not an easy task .
John, thanks for sharing these and all the other gorgeous daffs you’ve been posting! It’s very refreshing to see them blooming if only on the computer screen. Campino is very nice!
They are all lovely, I especially like the round form of Campino and the cup shape on the all yellow G -100 – 2 with its smooth edge. Growth has slowed down a lot here, but surprisingly there are some stems fully out on a jonquilla I have named as Max Hamilton jonquilla. I think it must be one that Max selected and passed on to John Hunter who gave it to me. It doesn’t usually flower until early September. Some Little Gem x cyclamineus started flowering about a week earlier than usual. Thanks for the photos John, its always good to see what Wilf has been up to with the tazettas!