Daffodils in Tasmania

The week in Tasmania following the World Daffodil Convention in Melbourne proved equally as interesting and fun-filled as the convention itself.

We began our week in Devonport. Travelling through Tasmania’s richest farming area next day, we made our first stop at Radcliff’s Daffodils in Port Sorell. Jamie Radcliff is a third generation daffodil grower. His family bred perhaps the world’s first pink trumpet daffodil, and they lead the way in orange and red trumpet daffodils. We stopped in Sheffield, a town known for its lovely murals painted on building walls (and I spotted one wall done in graffiti as well). A Tasmanian tiger shown in one of the murals depicted this possibly extinct animal for us. Next stop was Strahan where we stayed two nights. While there, we journeyed on the ABT Railway, a unique cog-driven train to Queenstown. In earlier days, the railway was the only route to get ore from the mines to the coast.

Travelling from Strahan to Hobart, the scenery changed from the wild west coast to the rolling sheep-grazing land of the Derwent Valley. Near dusk we visited the Bonorong Wildlife Center where we saw live Tasmanian devils, koalas, wombats, and kangaroos. We even got to feed the wallabies!

The show in Hobart was sponsored by the Hobart Horticultural Society, and some of us were invited to help with the judging. Though we have a different scale of points for judging, we seem to agree on the choice for the best bloom. David Jackson, our able tour organizer, had best bloom with a lovely yellow trumpet seedling of his. He also had Reserve Best Bloom with his ‘Wyong’, a white and yellow large-cupped daffodil. Again there were lots of miniature daffodils, with Kevin Crowe, Rod Barwick, and Geoff Temple-Smith each having interesting flowers. Kevin had the best miniature, an all yellow cyclamineus hybrid, #25/04. Rod had some diminutive doubles and several miniatures showing color, which is hard to come by. His 27/99(pictured) was charming. I especially liked Geoff’s little triandrus hybrid, ‘Russell Falls’. Rod also had Best Intermediate-sized flower with his ‘Oh Kaye’, a lovely double. Following the opening of the show, we were invited to a Civic Reception hosted by The Lord Mayor of Hobart.

Next day we had our choice of visits to the daffodil fields of Ian Norman and Mike Temple-Smith or a tour of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden. Ian grows his daffodils on the shores of the Derwent River, while Mike grows his bulbs in the hills. We visited near dusk, and a rainbow made it a perfect ending. The week ended with a visit to Geeveston and the fields of David Jackson. David is also a third generation daffodil grower, and Jackson Daffodils are known world-wide. It was a lovely, sunny Sunday afternoon spent walking among the daffodils in a perfect setting—a wonderful way to end the Australian odyssey.

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