The daffodil season is moving slowly in New Zealand and most areas had a rough weekend as a severe southerly front moved up the country . My cutflower numbers for market dropped by half as they kept their heads down .Our Kapiti area is one of the earliest and we are about mid season for Erlicheer , – a very popular and well known market flower .
Erlicheer is a N Z raised flower , registered as a sport of WHITE PEARL , 8 W – W . I have been growing Erlicheer commercially for over 30 years , – not in big volumes but marketing several thousand bunches every season .Almost every season , a few heads of WHITE PEARL appear in the patch and many other growers report the same flowering . The late Tony Robinson had marked , isolated and replanted a good line of W P that after a few years had stabilised and only flowered as WP . This was a good achievement , as for me , they almost always revert back to Erlicheer .
I have probably only seen both Erlicheer and White Pearl on the same stem / flowerhead , a dozen times in the many years I have been growing it – many hundreds of thousands of stems . I mostly pick with only one flower open , – thus only see a small percentage of the total blooms . However , I spotted a mixed head in last weeks picking , – primarily because the first flower open was a White Pearl . I brought it inside to further open – from the ten flowers there are three White Pearl .Quite a unique stem and well worth recording .
DAFFSEEK tells us that the pollen of ERLICHEER is pollen fertile , the tazetta maestro Bill the bulb Baron , Bill Welch , has bred and registered RACHEL’S MAGIC SPELL , — 4W – Y from Matador -x – Erlicheer . I have spotted a little pollen of the mixed flower and will hopefully find a double with a pistil and try a cross . Is the flower a White Pearl , listed as 22 chromosomes and probably not fertile or very reduced fertility or is it an Erlicheer flower ( as are most of it’s mates ) and of a different fertility level . Worth a try , if the weather improves .
Thank you for this interesting post, John! I had never looked at the background of ‘Erlicheer’ and did not realize it was a NZ introduction nor did I notice it was listed as a possible sport of ‘White Pearl’. I do recall seeing huge beds planted with ‘Erlicheer’ at the Dunedin, NZ sponsor’s garden, Les Cleveland, in 2012. I found this additional information on Daffseek:
Origin of Name:
According to daffodil historian John Hunter, of the National Daffodil Society of New Zealand, Alan Gibson of Marton, New Zealand, a major daffodil nurseryman in the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s first noticed this flower in 1934 in the garden of Mr. Gardiner of Huntly, New Zealand. Alan Gibson obtained the bulb stock and was going to register it as ‘Cheerfulness’, this name was taken so was not accepted for the Register. Then Alan put forward the name of ‘Gaiety’, this name had also been used and again was rejected. World War II intervened and nothing was done until after it ended. When Ron Hyde returned from active service in Italy, he became Alan Gibson’s foreman at the daffodil nursery and Ron registered the flower as ‘Erlicheer’ (Gardiner) Hyde, 1951.
And this article on Les Cleveland: https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/gardeners-gift-dunedin-recognised
Interesting photos, thank you John. The flower at middle top looks to be half Erlicheer and half White Pearl! Erlicheer blooms early in warmer areas, but here it is definitely a mid-season bloomer, about 20th September. I didn’t know its pollen was fertile.
John, your photos are beautiful and clearly display both ‘Erlicheer’ and ‘White Pearl’ on one stem. Thank you!
‘Erlicheer’ is a daffodil that Ben cannot get too close to because of its wonderful fragrance, well… some of us think it is wonderful!
Nancy
Obviously the White Pearl with 22 chromosomes is not the same plant that sported to produce Erlicheer. I have always assumed Erlicheer was 2 parts paperwhite and one part colored tazetta and that like others of this type, typically breeds as if it is just a pure paperwhite. My guess is that the doubling genetics is in the colored tazetta chromomes and so the chances of getting a double from it are not good. I have kept one seedling from it crossed with an Autumn Colors. Not surprisingly this seedling is sterile.