The California daffodil show season began with the Livermore Daffodil Show on March 2-3, 2019. The advance weather was positive for blooms, having periods of light rain and mild winds, with consistent lengthy breaks of sun. The previous Winter was not very cold, but the final month before the show was unusually cool (that means light frosts most mornings). The result was that early season flowers were advanced and later flowers were slow, lacking their desired chill.
My Standard greenish seedlings (N.viridiflorus in their breeding) needed only a week or so delay by refrigeration to be entered. Few normally available Standards were yet in bloom. Harold Koopowitz brought his Miniatures (all pollinated with various species and home-grown) which were at peak in Southern California (450 miles south). Marilynn Howe, his show associate, came along to assist him in staging them. Steve Hampson (Harold’s partner) brought Standards grown in Southern California.
Kirby Fong (from Livermore) and Steve Hampson normally provide the show the best of the Standards. Each is a master at timing the planting and nurturing growth for the show season. This year, they were joined in success by Anna Fine who brought a treasure trove from her small garden in Livermore. She swept the Small Growers Section and added a sweep in the Youth Section by entering blooms grown by Nick Swanson, her grandson.
The outstanding show entry was (in my opinion) a vase of three ‘Ice Follies’ 2W-Y brought by Mary Roach for her neighbor, Karen Vogel-Hayes. Take a good look at this vase in Kirby Fong’s summary on Daffnet. Clearly the best of this cultivar I’ve seen!
The winners of major awards are all viewable in Kirby’s summary on Daffnet.