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East Coast enjoys a gold rush of daffodils

Late spring brings out colorful beauties in shows, gardens

The Columbian
Published: April 22, 2015, 5:00pm

Daffodil shows move up the mid-Atlantic like flocks of robins in spring.

The generally start in Richmond and Winchester, Va., and move north to suburban Washington, Towson, Md., and Chambersburg, Pa. — basically following dates that should match peak narcissus season by locale.

There have been years when the folks who stage daffodil shows could be found at this point in April wringing their hands, after a month of precociously hot weather had blasted the best varieties and left the show benches adorned with a pretty thin assortment of late-season stragglers.

I was thinking of this the other day when I was in Bethesda, Md., in Bob Huesmann’s still cool, damp and wonderfully tardy daffodil garden, whose best blossoms were just beginning to emerge from their hibernation.

The spectacularly late spring has had the effect of compressing a normal daffodil season — if there is such a thing — from seven weeks or so to four or fewer. Rather than being a source of dismay, this rush has turned a dinner party into a feast with a rare overlapping of bloom periods for varieties that might otherwise have missed one another. This has been perfect timing for The Washington Daffodil Society’s 65th annual show, staged April 16-17 in Fairfax City, Va.

I may have said this before: To visit a show is to discover that daffodils are not yellow blobs on yonder hillside, but a family of spring blooms of astonishing variation of form, color and size. Typically, varieties on the show bench have exemplary composition and coloration, they are well grown and unblemished. If bulbs were couture, this would be Fashion Week.

These divas are not wild daffodils but hybrids that made the cut. For every one in commerce, many thousands have been discarded. Daffodil fanciers regard the breeders behind the bulb as fashionistas might think of designers. This is why, when you visit the garden of a fellow daffodil worshiper, to ask the name of a cultivar is also to get the name of the hybridizer. The Huesmanns — Bob’s wife, Lina, is also a devotee — are drawn to the cultivars of internationally known breeders such as J.M. Radcliff, John R. Reed, Elise Havens, Charles Wheatley, David Jackson and Bill Pannill. Some have since passed on, but collectively they and others have brought the daffodil into the realm of living sculpture.

I know that every time I visit the garden of a fancier, I will find real beauties that stir covetous impulses. The bulbs can be expensive, hard to find and slow to increase in one’s own garden, but all those considerations fall away when you are smitten. (If you want to get into this rarefied daffodil bazaar, you should join a local daffodil society, where bulb sales are part of the experience.)

I am partial to pink-cupped daffodils, not least because they tend to have a sweet fragrance. In my guide’s garden, a variety named Rose Lake was just opening, when the cup is as its darkest and richest, almost mauve. Huesmann regards this as Havens’ finest pink-cupped. Another is Pathetique.

I also love yellow daffodils with orange and red cups. We went to see Magic Lantern, with petals tinged with a warm yellow surrounding a trumpet that opens a creamy delicate orange and ages to a bronze color. It is a favorite of show judges. “A lot of best-in-shows,” Huesmann said.

From his fridge, he produced Shockwave, with overlapping petals that are more rounded than the paddle shape of other varieties. “I’ve had it for several years, but I’m not sure I’ve ever shown one,” he said, referring to the vagaries of weather and show schedules. This year, the arrival of so many gorgeous daffodils promises a show season to remember.

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