Daffodil Journal 2020

It has been a while for sure, but I want to be consistent and do my yearly daffodil journaling. I feel I've had a lot of growth in daffodil knowledge over the past year.

Starting in November, I sowed daffodil seeds which I ordered from Australia. Many of those seeds are rather rare or exotic daffodils. Fortunately, all of each variety germinated! I was surprised, given the seasonal differences between northern and southern hemispheres, which resulted in the seeds being dormant longer than usual. Some of the seeds were several years old and germinated. All of the germination happened within a month.

I also sowed seeds collected from my own breeding, and all of them germinated except seeds from 'Gigantic Star'. I'll keep them watered in case they come up eventually.

I also joined the Georgia Daffodil Society. Tomorrow is their daffodil show, and I volunteered to be a clerk, which means I'll follow around the judges and take notes.

A week from now, and I'll be going to the American Daffodil Society national convention, which is a nation-wide show, with many talks and garden tours also, and tours of some commercial daffodil farms. I'm looking forward to meeting contacts I've made over the internet.

I've been corresponding with a few daffodillians from around the world. There's another daffodil breeder around my age in South Carolina who has been sharing a lot of info with me. He connected me with a guy in Spain who sells seeds of species daffodils. I have a ton of species daffodil seeds to start in the fall!

Anyway, here are some of my daffodils so far this year:

This is one of my first Autumn Colors daffodils, which actually started blooming around Christmas Day. This year I'll start watering it earlier so that it blooms in autumn.

This is another Autumn Colors daffodil. I love the deep orange concave cups. It has a wonderful honey-like fragrance, too. I pollinated it with a few other cultivars and it seems to have set a lot of seeds.

'Nir', an Israeli-bred paperwhite. I pollinated it with the white and orange Autumn Colors above and it seems to have set ample seed too.

'Stella Superba', a historic daffodil I rescued from my great grandmother's land near Birmingham. It has a nice fragrance and old-fashioned charm.

'Trevithian', one of my all-time favorites.

'Orange Queen', a new daffodil I acquired this year. This is also a historic daffodil, from the early 20th century. It looks like a smaller version of 'Trevithian', but with very densely-saturated color that almost does look orange in real life. Nearby daffodils look light yellow in comparison.

'Abba'. This double daffodil smells amazing. I moved it from a container into the ground this year. It's petit and looks nice at the front of the border.

'Autumn Pearl', a massive, long-lasting, magnificent daffodil, like a cream-colored paperwhite. It's very sterile in the breeding department, though. It was bred by the late Bill Welch, who died late last year. I ordered these bulbs, along with his Autumn Colors, from him directly.

'Sulphur Phoenix', a really old historic double daffodil (from before 1820 I believe). This is another from my great grandmother's land. It has a wonderful fragrance.

'White Petticoat', another new one for the this year. It's a seedling of 'Diamond Ring', which I've grown and posted about here before, crossed with the white species Narcissus cantabricus. It has a wonderful melon-like fruity fragrance.

Here's 'White Petticoat' in its pot. It's a tiny daffodil. These daffodils, called bulbocodiums or hoop-petticoat daffodils, are quite different from other daffodils and don't interbreed with them easily.

That's about all for now. More blooms to come, though!

Recent Pinhole Photographs

I've been using my pinhole camera more lately. Here's some photos I took at Panama City Beach, downtown Opelika, and downtown Auburn.

Panama City Beach, Memorial Day weekend, Ektar 100 film:

Downtown Opelika, this past Sunday:

Irish Bred Pub

Lee County Courthouse Square

Bars & Restaurants

Bridge over the tracks

Railroad town

Notre Dame d'Opelika (St. Mary's Parish)

Downtown Auburn later that afternoon, post-siesta:

Stop and Go

The pinhole camera was facing directly upward, 90 degrees from the horizon. I want to take more pinhole photos from this angle.

Well, I missed the top of Samford Hall. So goes a camera without a viewfinder.

Auburn's Confederate Cannon Lathe

Another shot facing directly upward, this one from the base of a Japanese maple.

Garden Update

I've been busy in the garden lately, spending two or three hours on it every day. After I had trees cut down in my yard, I made three large flower beds and started growing daylilies, lilies, and bearded irises. I have a lot more sun in my yard now and things are looking good. Here's some recent photos.

A purple Louisiana iris

This is a bearded iris I transplanted from my great-grandmother's house. If I identified it correctly, it's called 'Francina' and dates from 1920. The flower smells like grapes.

Another, smaller, bearded iris from my great-grandmother's. I haven't identified it yet.

Another shot

This was my first year growing borage. The flowers are edible, and they indeed taste like cucumber

A few Narcissus x odorus bulbs I dug from my mom's yard

Freshly dug bulb of Narcissus broussonetii. It had two large, fleshy, ridged roots, which I found unusual. I haven't got this fall-bloomer to flower yet but let's hope we see some blooms this November.

My 'Pepperbox' poppies are starting to bloom. This is a strain grown for poppy seeds. I transplanted them in February. People say you can't transplant poppies, but that's not true. The trick is that you have to be very careful. When I transplanted them, it was like surgery. I gently took them out of the pots, gently placed them in pre-dug holes, and lightly pushed dirt around the root ball without disturbing it at all. Then I watered them in with a gentle shower attachment.

My system of keeping track of daffodil seeds: placing them in gelatin capsules. Each capsule has seeds from a specific cross I made.

While my roommate and I were talking on the patio, a Giant Swallowtail butterfly flew in and started laying her eggs on my citrus trees. She wasn't afraid of us at all; she was just fluttering all around us. It amazes me how they can find citrus trees.

Fragrant Camellias and Historic Daffodils

Here's what was blooming in my garden last week.

I bought a new camellia this year, a hybrid camellia from New Zealand called 'High Fragrance'. I was curious about a fragrant camellia, because I love camellias and I love fragrant plants. The fragrance can be quite subtle. I noticed it most on a day when it got into the 70s. It has Camellia japonica as one parent, and looks similar, though just different enough to satisfy curiosity.

Camellia 'High Fragrance'

Camellia 'High Fragrance'

A lot of daffodils are in bloom. Actually, the daffodil season is about to be over. The only one that hasn't bloomed yet is 'Sir Winston Churchill', though it may also be a year when Twin Sisters decides to bloom, which usually happens closer to May.

'White Lady' is one of my favorites and is blooming now. It's a historic cultivar, and a small-cup daffodil, too, which usually don't do so well in the South.

Narcissus 'White Lady'

Narcissus 'White Lady'

Narcissus 'White Lady'

Narcissus 'White Lady'

'Matador' is also blooming. It's new for me this year, having acquired it last fall. It's well known in the daffodil world for its unique genetics: a tetraploid with equal parts standard daffodil and tazetta lineage. This makes it especially valuable for hybridizing. In fact, several of the daffodils I already own are progeny of 'Matador': 'Falconet', 'Martinette', and 'Bittern'.

Narcissus 'Matador'

Narcissus 'Matador'

Narcissus 'Matador'

Last but not least, the super-vigorous 'Silver Chimes' is blooming. It's a massive daffodil with huge bulbs, robust foliage, and many flower stems. I picked some before a thunderstorm and brought them inside:

Narcissus 'Silver Chimes'

Narcissus 'Silver Chimes'

Narcissus 'Silver Chimes'

They last about a week in a vase.