Narcissus 'Peeping Tom' - Cyclamineus, Division 6

 Daffodils are classified into thirteen different divisions. I don't have an example of all of them but I'll work my way through a few in the next few weeks. Division 6 today, the cyclamineus. Typically miniature with swept back, reflexed petals and a very straight trumpet. The name is easy: they resemble cyclamen in shape. 'Peeping Tom' is a good example and very useful in our garden as it looks fabulous and increases readily. Plant and forget. I never intended it but the narcissii I have featured lately have been older varieties, this one going back to pre-1946, bred in Cornwall by Percival D Williams who died in 1935. Percival was one of the great plant breeders. 'Carlton', the world's best selling daffodil bulb was one of his hybrids. Until the 2nd World War when the daffodil fields were grubbed up in favour of food crops, Cornwall was the centre of the daffodil cultivation shipping out bulbs right around the world.  Thousands of his seedlings were tested in the Netherlands and they have taken on the mantle of world leaders in the industry at Cornwall's expense. We've never recovered our ascendancy though 'Peeping Tom' has certainly stood the test of time. I have included a photograph of tgevgreat man taken from an interesting 2018 pamphlet from daffilibrary.org. 



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