Pink Daffodils

When people find out I grow a lot of daffodils, they ask me if I grow that "pink daffodil." Pink daffodils? Well, not really solid pink, but pink and white, and recently some pink and yellow daffodils. The daffodil to which they were referring was the very old cultivar, 'Mrs. R.O. Backhouse.' That was one of the very first pink and white daffodils available to the public. And it opened with a more or less yellow cup, which took on pink tones as it matured in the garden. And if you blinked, you might miss the pink coloration. These days, there are about 2000 daffodils with pink in the cups listed in The American Daffodil Society's data bank. Some have solid pink cups, while some have just an enchanting rim of pink on the cup edge. A few even have a hint of pink in the petals. And the number keeps growing every year, as the breeders are developing deeper and deeper pink coloring in the cups.

Pink and white daffodils come in almost every division of the classification system. For pink trumpets, 'Pink Silk,' from Elise Havens, is hard to beat, and blooms early in the season. It has a rather straight cup. Most of the pink daffodils are in Division 2, which is for those daffodils with the cup more than 1/3, but less than equal the length of the petals. My favorite daffodil may be 'Fragrant Rose,' which is in this division. Some people say it has the fragrance of the rose 'Tropicana,' but my nose can't detect it! It has beautiful form, and is a beautiful pink to the base of the cup. I can always count on exhibiting it, and the bulbs also multiply quickly so that one bulb soon makes a nice clump in the garden. It blooms in late mid-season. Unfortunately I loaned my slide to someone, and didn't get it back. I guess the moral of that story is don't loan slides!

Some years ago Murray Evans, in Oregon, raised some very deep-colored pink-cupped daffodils. Some that are now available are 'Artful' (pictured) and 'Personable' in Division 2, and 'Newcomer' and 'Upshot' in Division 3 (short cupped daffodils). These still cost the price of a good steak dinner, but the color is wonderful.

Grant Mitsch, the dean of American daffodil hybridizers, also in Oregon, bred daffodils which may have the deepest pink coloring currently available. The color is so deep, that they are registered as having red cups. And they are not orange-red, either. 'Catalyst' was the first one available, and 'Amadeus' was released this year. Newly named 'Assertion' from Brian Duncan is not yet available, but it fits right in with these strongly colored pink daffodils.

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