ENTERTAINMENT THROUGH THE GARDEN GAT E
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THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE IT’S DAFFODIL SEASON
It’s daffodil season and as well as gardeners appreciating their display, Camilla Bassett-Smith has news on how we can help unearth some particularly rare examples!
With over 30,000 different daffodil cultivars, we are all spoilt for choice. The UK grows 90% of the world’s cut flower daffodils and they have always been my favourite flower. The border of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire is of course blessed with ‘The Golden Triangle’ as Newent, Dymock and Kempley shine with their collection of the wild pseudonarcissus, the same daffodil that Wordsworth worshipped over 200 miles away in the glorious Lake District. A symbol of hope, daffodils are also at the forefront of medical science, as a source of galantamine, an important Alzheimer’s treatment (NB this needs to be extracted by specialists, do not eat daffodils at home!). Environmentally too, adding a chemical found in daffodils to cattle feed has been part of on-going research which has resulted in decreased methane emissions from those cows. Beautiful blooms, and clever too, but now there’s a chance for you to get involved in an exciting new daffodil campaign.
Launched this spring by the RHS, the Daffodil Diaries project aims to plot hundreds of daffodils as they flower throughout the UK. We are being asked to log any daffodils we have blooming in our gardens or local area and RHS scientists will use this information to understand environmental influences on these plants and establish how widespread they are. However, that’s not all, the RHS need our help in locating three particularly rare and historically significant cultivars, which you just may have growing in your garden!
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LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
First up, may I introduce you to Narcissus ‘Mrs R. O. Backhouse’, the first pink daffodil, introduced in the 1920s and named after its breeder Sarah, wife of William Backhouse, a pioneering figure in daffodil hybridisation, responsible for introducing ‘Emperor’ and ‘Empress’. Today the Backhouse Rossie Estate in Fife holds a Plant Heritage National Plant Collection of over 89 Backhouse heritage daffodil cultivars and is well worth a visit for its Daffodil Festival taking place on 12th and 13th April. But back to this pink cupped beauty, elegant and subtle and well worth a hunt around to see if you can search her out! Known to exist in private collections, especially in the USA, I am yet to be introduced and would love for her to be hiding out in a Gloucestershire garden or Herefordshire hedgerow!
'Mrs. R.O. Backhouse' Picture Courtesy Daffseek, Quality Daffodils
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