"Wrap-Up of the 2000 Daffodil Season"

DaffyClay's Personal Daffodil Show Report for 2000

Extract taken from Clay's personal daffodil scrape book.

This is my fifth year showing daffodils and as I meet and get to know people with 20 - 30 years showing experience, it makes me feel that I am still a novice. Nevertheless, the 2000 daffodil season was a strange one. It's the first year that I stopped right in the middle of the daffodil show season, and sat out for a week. I seriously considered giving up the daffodil growing and showing game and quit this whole mess. The frustration was too high.

Y2K, as the media liked to call the year 2000, was the third year in a row that we had little winter, or a mild winter. It was mild going all the way into mid-January 2000 when we received our first cold and snow. After about 10 days the mildness returned and stayed that way until about March 17th at which time a deep-cold spell arrived. The cold spell dipped down into the teens, and stayed cool thereafter all the way until April. Around April 1st there were a couple of warm days into the seventies, and immediately thereafter, we were back to cooler weather. After the National Show in Portland, the warm returned and the daffodils begin to pop open like popcorn.

Atlanta, Georgia Daffodil Show. We started the season by attending a very early season daffodil show in Atlanta, GA, on March 18th with daffodils that were blooming early because, first I had refrigerated them for six weeks last fall, and second, because the winter was so mild. We won 13 blue ribbons, but no major American Daffodil Society awards. It was just too early for us, and our entries were limited to vases of three, and single stems. Had a great time. Those Georgia people are the best. The flowers I took were the early daffodils, such as 'Bittern', 'Tete-A-Tete', 'Tenby', and a few division 6 such as 'Winter Waltz' and some trumpets like 'Pops Legacy'. Our 'Pops Legacy' was one of the final three for best in show.

Dallas, Texas, Daffodil Show. We went to Dallas on March 25th with just 11 flowers and won 8 blue ribbons. It's strange that a cold snap that occurred just as we left to go to Atlanta the week before and was still hanging over us. Therefore, not as many new flowers were in bloom as we had the when we left for Atlanta a week earlier. It was sunny and pleasant in Dallas as the local club placed their flowers out for all to enjoy. Nice bunch of friendly folks in Dallas. They liked my division 6s 'Winter Waltz', my trumpets such as 'Baradoc', and my only division 12, 'Bittern' which had a deep orange color.

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