For The Bench

In an average lifespan, if you had a million kisses to either give or receive, that would be 34 a day, or about two every waking hour of every day, which would be a very pleasant experience. A Million Kisses daffodil is also a pleasant show of affection – bred in the English Channel islands it puckers up with very round and overlapping white segments with a flattened yellow and broad -orange-banded frilly cup. Freshly registered, AMK is a child of Jersey Lace.

Strong and consistent Aberfoyle is a very dependable large orange cupped entry for the bench. Gets better upon further inspection. An English variety from the 80’s

Bringing more rock and roll glamour to the modern New Zealand garden party, Abraxis is a scented, broad petaled, and wavy tazetta hybrid dressed in white and orange. Early to arrive to the fete. From Grand Monarch.

A gently colored yellow pink cup, Acumen is an older Tasmanian bred sage.White color spreads freely through the perianth giving Acumen a soft demeanor. For breeding and the bench. Late. Rare.

Tall, old, historic Narcissus with a deeply colored cup. ADS Historic. Breeding potential.

Late and wide flowered yellow small cup. Colorful gives an overall golden impression. Very limited stock. By Brian Duncan Safari tours. I do not have any photos of African Sunset today.

A bright and balanced broad large cup from Brian Duncan. Very limited. Named for the fantastical early 20th century hotel in Yosemite where room rates average $890 a night. You can enjoy a visit with our Ahwahnee for $3 a year.

Large blossomed white and pink cupped Brian Duncan Hybrid. From Fragrant Rose, but pink coalesces at the rim of the cup. Pictures coming this spring.

Brian Duncan has bred a lot of imposing white / pink cups, substantial, with large blooms. Alto is like that, but with a wide cup and very rounded all over. Small Stock.

A recently introduced double that is most like a lotus blossom when it opens a mild- yellow with an alluring symmetry. As Ambon matures into clear white and yellow it gets wide and wild. You will easily be able to select a very stunning bloom. Best as a stem, in the landscape Ambon blooms a bit in the leaves. This Daffodil is named for a city in the Moluccas in Indonesia, once a Dutch colony.

We can remember clearly the first time we saw American Dream, its perfection and poise made us think “This is the zenith of the hybridizer’s oeuvre”. There are a handful of Yellow / Pink trumpets, most spend a brief season in the sunshine of the trade and then disappear just as quickly. Our envy for this flower may arise from a sentimental association with the name, or is it for the bloom ? More reverie engineering from the Grant-Havens stable.Extremely limited stock.

Just when I swore off of yellow orange cups along comes a colorful and deep cupped modern Jonquilla. Anfield is such a happy fellow I am committed to finding him good homes, perhaps adjacent to yours. Scented, two blooms to a scape, bulbs tend to make a plethora of scapes. From the likewise prolific Walter Blom. Ample stocks.

All the people are waiting for Angel Face,
She said she'd meet them down at their favorite place.
Dressed in yellow satin, white linen and lace,
She stood so high with a smile on her face.

Rounded profile, the small cup is richly colored and broad. Towards maturity the segments of Arid Plains blanch from solid yellow to partially white. From Brian Duncan.

Sometimes you need to be brassy to stand out from the cacophonous crowd. Rounded, smooth, and substantial, Armidale can make a very large and flawless flower. A yellow / orange small cup with a punch from Brian Duncan. Limited.

Arona - Soft yellow perianth, the soft orange peaks at the rim of the spherical cup. Soft spoken and detailed. From Clive Postles.

A flower so sought after that we can't keep it in house. Large perfect all white large cup, Ashton Wold has a place in the landscape and on the bench.

Astrid´s Memory

Badanloch, a rounded small cup, pure white perianth with a broad, clear orange ring on its yellow cup.

Small solid colored yellow cup set in a substantial set of spinnaker-like segments. Large diameter flower. Turns out that we do need those badges. Badgeworth is from Clive Postles. Limited.

Ballistic. Bright perfectly formed, well structured double with 4 inch blooms. Full throated Kiwi style from New Zealand. Photographs don't do Ballistic justice. You will so want this daffodil when you see it. We did.

The daffodil diggers of North Holland consider themselves to be tough guys. It is never good to be “soft” and they will let you know it, early and often. But here is the softest colored pink cup ever, and where does it come from but straight out of tough guy land. I think my florist friends will swoon and soften for Beau Beauté. She is a bit like High Society that has completed a course in anger management. Really remarkable color. New introduction from Carlos van der Veek.

New Introduction, White and yellow, pink-rimmed large cupped daffodil for competition from Brian Duncan.

Burgerbrug is a town in north Holland that is a hotbed of daffodil culture. Burgerbrug translates loosely to “The Citizen’s Bridge”. Unless you go down to the actual bridge, which is a kind of floating, single-lane drawbridge contraption, then you are in the neighborhood of “Burgervlotbrug” - The Citizen’s Floating Bridge. Not for the faint of heart.

This is Carlo’s encomium to his hometown and I am genuinely stunned at its beauty, an overlapping perianth update to Queen of the North, or something along those lines. New Introduction in 2023. Good stock.

Bell Fly is a recent posthumous introduction from Walter Blom, and what a high-spirited cyclamineus it is. Dare we say that it is broader, longer and more zippy than daffodil Iwona that we love so much ? Not pink, but orange cupped. An early dwarf, vigorous. We are unable to determine the origin of the name. Limited stock.

My Best Friend has a round pale primrose moon face and thin orange ring on his very round corona. Such are the bonds of friendship. A real bench burner. By Clive Postles. Only a handful available.

This recent Mark Vandervliet double is not registered, and being a flower previously unseen I was perplexed by the size of the bulb, a really big bulb. The double flower is equally as big and supremely well organized and detailed. Like many sumo-sized doubles she blooms in the leaves a bit, so better for the vase and the bench than the border. I would like to have a platoon of Big Girls.

Bionic is an intensely colored yellow orange large cup bred in Tasmania. Full of modern contrast, Bionic has a well-rounded, perfectly layered perianth and a distinct deep cylindrical cup. A six million dollar bloom on the bench. A champion.