Small-Cupped Daffodils

An ivory and red small cup, Abstruse makes consistent and charismatic blooms, with great color and great substance in the petals. Doesn't makes mittens as the petals seldom catch unfolding from the cup. An easy win on the bench : I find the neck a little brittle so use your lady fingers when finishing. Originally from down under.

Softly colored, elegant and well-rounded, Aircastle always speaks with an indoor voice. Tall and late : an ADS classic from Grant Mitsch that will never go out of style.

Perfection of form and consistency of performance are the attributes of this variety. The perianth is very rounded and flat, and in perfect balance with the small flat crown which is pale apricot lemon with a narrow margin of deeper shade. The perianth opens milk white but after a few days turns to greenish beige. A large flower of good substance and vigorous growth. One may go down a long row and find nearly every flower of exhibition caliber. A frequent show winner including awards for best flower in the Royal Horticultural Society's London Daffodil Show in 1963 and 1966. It has been a good parent. While the color does not appeal to every one, it is doubtless one of the best Daffodils we have raised.

Novelty Daffodils Catalog, Grant Mitch, 1971 p. 5

Albatross - a vigorous and showy old small cup.  Takes calm and patience to differentiate this bloom from its peers: White Lady, Seagull, Stella. Albatross has more orange in the cup that the others.  Bold and bright in the landscape : increases.

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, a peerless thing for the bench. From Clive Postles.

Astrid's Memory: White and Yellow small cupped show daffodil from Clive Postles.

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.

Barri Conspicuous is one of the founding members of the Iron Ladies and Marathon Men Daffodil Club. A very old Backhouse seedling, aka Conspicuus, has broad petals for an antique, a long 90 degree neck, and a yellow petal color that transmogrifies to creamy white. The cup is a pleasing yet intense yellow orange with just the right amount of Victorian frilly bling. A truly great landscape flower that has been dug and replanted for 150 years, and with good reason. ADS Historic.

The Barr Family were well established daffodil merchants in London by the turn of the 20th century . The appellation "Barrii" or sometimes "Barri" was an early attempt at classification and was applied to many poeticus / pseudo narcissus crosses that they marketed. The tall stems of modern cultivars likely descends from these early crosses of the upright poeticus species. The Barri nomenclature is now commonly dropped.

An old an bright small-cup, Narcissus Bath's Flame was once widely grown as a cut flower. A true classic that will never go out of style. Lithe and long lived. Based on the intense color that is coaxed out of the cup in the Dutch spring weather I think this daffodil would be classified as red, not orange in the cup if it was newly introduced today,

We hesitate to deem Beautiful Dream as a good "filler" flower for the bouquet, although it succeeds any way you see fit to use it. Because of its gentle nature and its ability to elevate its neighbors, you may overlook its strength, frilly cup and lovely coloration. Like all things Grant Mitsch there is perfection here, but perfection does not exclude gentleness. Pollen and seed fertile. Granddaughter of China White. Don't be shy, we have a good stock of this daffodil.

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.

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.

Brian Duncan's take on the classic show bench daffodil Pacific Rim. Burning Ring has fabulously oval petals on an impossibly thin lipstick-edged cup.

Cameo Marie - A fiery white and yellow-yellow-orange Kiwi-bred small cup. Broad ovate white petals. Four inch blooms. A substantial flower that is a natural for the show bench. Rare.

There is a stable of Brian Duncan White / Pink small cups that we find so rewarding it is hard to pick a favorite. Camilla Clara Kate is so robust and substantial that we think it is time to close the book. A stem like a utility pole, a bloom without weakness. An example of why we love small cups. A lovely competitor that ought always to be in your quiver as it is always easy to find a flawless bloom.

An orange rimmed white small cup from Clive Postles brimming with movie-star charisma. The actress Carole Lombard, nicknamed by publicists as Curvy Carole was a child star in the silent movies before making a successful transition to "talkies": specifically in screwball comedies. In 1942, returning from a rally selling $2 million worth of war bonds in her native Indiana, Carole's life and career was cut short by a tragic flight via TWA ( aka The Worst Airline ) . Limited.

All white small cup with an intense, cherry pink rim on the cup Cherry Glow is a newer Brian Duncan cultivar. Substantial flower on a substantial plant. Cherry Glow would be our choice to take to a show, she pushes the upwards boundaries of small cup. Great stems.

Broad white petals with a coy green eye. Much Sought after. ADS Historic, ADS Classic. Tall and late, it plays well with others: We put it on the May floral market. A bloom of great beauty and poise that defines elegance : one we cannot imagine living without. A proud parent both ways.

If you had a flat face with a broad pink rim perhaps your mother would have named you Dena too. Dena the Daff is so popular we can't keep her in stock. With a face like that we would be just as popular too. From Brian Duncan.

A formidable all-white small cup Draycote Water is descended from Princess Zaide who is disappearing from the commercial trade. Like its father Draycote excels in the landscape and on the show bench. Maybe a bit better at both if you are looking for a white small cup, that is.

An antique all over mellow yellow small cup from the Rev Engleheart. This is a rare daffodil, so rare that it is rumored not to exist. But here we are one hundred years on with no end in sight. Petals get slim, acute, and shouldered with age. Swellegant ( thanks Cole Porter).

Evesham. Very few bulbs available.

Watching a planting of Firebrand in bloom blow in the breeze on a sunny spring day is an encounter that may never let slip from memory. A poster child for the greatness of historic, small-cupped daffodils : bred mostly by tweed wearing clerics and the landed gentry. A handsome devil, much like Lucifer . Increases with a little care.

Shallow bowl shaped yellow to red small cup in a blunt white perianth. Very tall, very late and colorful. From New Zealand.

Just fills you with envy doesn't it ? Powerful contender for best in any show, no? Ovate and mucronate spinnaker-white petals as perfect as the compact red suction cupped-cup. Hartlebury is just unbeatable. Late 20th Century English narcissiculture.

Hollowbridge