A few more miniatures have opened to keep ‘Gold Breeze’ company in our 70F degree weather. But the weather is changing overnight with a low of near 27F and a high tom
orrow of only 45F. ‘Gold Breeze’ now has 3 florets in bloom.
The other photo is of ‘Norwester’, the first seedling I named.
Mary Lou,
They look good.
Clay
Thanks, Clay. It’s nice to have some blooms in our 70 degree weather. But that’s changing.
Mary Lou
Those are really nice Mary Lou, looks like you will have flowers to carry to the convention. I can certainly identify with the weather changes. The warm weather we have been having had the daffodils jumping out of the ground it seems by the hour and I was probably at full bloom a few days ago! Then came the rain and wind. Rain for the next 3 days now. We have Daffodil School 3 next weekend and need 40 different cultivars for it. It has been a real challenge trying to save varieties for that and also for myself to take to the convention. Somehow, I hope it all works out.
Hi Larry,
Thanks for the kind words. We can never count on the weather–except to say that it will probably be warm one day and below freezing the next! Our typical spring roller coaster. I won’t be going to the convention, but I hope you have lots of flowers saved to take with you. I enjoy the photos you post on Daffnet. Keep ’em coming!
Larry,
It sounds like daffodil weather to me! Never the same. As a former host to
a daffodil school, I know what you are facing, but for three years it
always seemed to work out and I’m sure it will for you guys. Good luck..
Clay
Thanks for your comments, Clay. Yes, we will get through the school with everyone working together. It is discouraging though, for me as a hybridizer to finally get blooms from your seedlings after 5 to 6 years, some that look promising to carry to the National Convention and have them more or less destroyed by the wind and rain. Only a 10% chance of rain today so I will get out and see what I can salvage. More rain tomorrow and Wednesday though. Next week also.
Larry, can you cut them as they are just opening and bring them inside to open fully? And then refrigerate them until Convention time? Seems like it’s worth a shot.
Thanks Mary Lou, Yes that would certainly be better than losing them in bad weather. Oh, my goodness I seem to be going from bad to worse. I really made a bad mistake today. I have 2 of the small college type refrigerators I use to keep the blooms cold. I had filled up one and yesterday started putting blooms in the other one. I had a thermometer in there and it was showing 40 degrees this morning. I set the thermostat a little cooler and this afternoon was going to put some more blooms in there and low and behold the bottles were frozen solid as well as the blooms and stems. Busted two of the bottles and lost appx. 30 blooms! Most of the stems were bent completely over, blooms hanging down. Some were for the school but others were for the convention. Apparently, the thermometer was not accurate. I should have let well enough alone. I have another thermometer in there now and will start over tomorrow.
Larry,
Don’t totally give up on those frozen daffodils. Put them in water and
back into the refrigerator, set not to freeze. Sometimes frozen daffodils
will fool you and come back. Other times not.
Clay
Larry,
I agree with Clay. Sometimes when we get a bout of freezing weather when the daffodils are in bloom, the weather will freeze the blooms, stems bend over, sort of like you describe. But when it warms up, the blooms perk up — maybe not good enough to show, but probably good enough for your school. Good for teaching about faults, etc.
Clay and Mary Lou,
Thanks so much for both of your trying to help in this situation. I am afraid these daffodils are beyond any help.
Hello Larry,
Some years ago when I use to show at Harrogate Show in Yorkshire (North
East of England) was held in a tent in a park at night the temperature
dropped to well below -0 and staged blooms looked just like your in the
morning, come 10am at Judging every flower stood tall.
So don’t give up! They will survive.
Ian
Ian Tyler,Thanks so much for your words of encouragement. They don’t seem to be improving but the good news is, today was very nice outside, no rain and I was able to replace a number of the ones for the school this weekend. I was not able to replace the ones I had planned to carry to the convention as some of those were first bloom seedlings, some of the others I only had 3 blooms for a vases of 3, but all is not lost, new blooms are opening everyday. I will still have other blooms to bring.
Larry