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Showtime daffodills are contagious

April 1, 2007 12:35 am

A happy 'yellow fever' daffodil show here

BY LUCIA ANDERSON

The lure of a blue ribbon can cause strange behavior.

Although daffodil fanciers claim their favorite flowers are among the easiest to grow, they still jump through hoops to snag those prizes.

Take Chris Rainey. A recent phone call found her on the road, many miles from her home in Reston.

She and a friend were chauffeuring a flat of daffodil blossoms to a show in Knoxville, Tenn.

The best way to transport the flowers without damage, she explained, is to put them in individual bottles and set the bottles in an old-fashioned wooden soda case.

"And if you're driving very far, you need to keep the air conditioner on, and every two or three hours you need to turn around and mist them with a spray bottle," Rainey said.

Clear hard liquor--gin, vodka, tequila--added to the water will extend the life of the flower, she said.

The American Daffodil Society's 2007 National Convention in Tacoma, Wash., later this month is too far to drive, so she's flying. The Transportation Security Administration folks are not about to allow dozens of water bottles--even with flowers sticking out of them--on the plane, so she'll have to carry them on in a box.

"You lay them flat in a box and tape them down," she explained. "That way they won't roll around and get damaged. You can keep them that way for up to 30 hours."

Rainey has been showing daffodils for 15 years. She went to see a daffodil show and was hooked.

"The flowers were fascinating, and the people growing them were very interesting. They were people that I wanted to spend more time with.

"There's an expression in the daffodil world--they say you catch 'yellow fever.' It's incurable," Rainey said.

She will be a judge at the Garden Club of Virginia's Daffodil Show here in Fredericksburg later this week. So will Suzanne Bresee of the town of Orange, who takes a more relaxed approach to the whole show scene.

"It's just crazy fun," Bresee said.

Taking a visitor through the myriad daffodils growing around her antebellum home, Bresee pointed out the things to look for when choosing a bloom to exhibit.

First and foremost, Bresee and Rainey agree, you have to know the daffodil's name. There are approximately 13,000 different varieties of daffodil; Bresee has more than 100 in her garden.

Timing is key. There are early-blooming daffodils, midseason and late bloomers. Shows are timed for midseason in each locality. Early-blooming varieties here will be good to take to shows to the South, Rainey said, late bloomers for shows to the North.

Bresee prizes freshness in blooms she takes to a show and will wait until she's walking out the door to pick her flowers.

Rainey is more cautious.

"If you see a show flower in the garden, pick it and put it in the refrigerator," she said. "You never know what might happen. There can be terrible winds, an 80-degree day, a hailstorm."

All the blooms in a daffodil show must be grown outside, according to Daffodil Society rules. But growers are allowed to cover their plants temporarily if there's a bad-weather alert.

"I hate to see them freeze," Bresee said.

She's been known to cover hers with black plastic to protect them from the cold.

It's a worthwhile labor of love, the women say. And more people should try it.

"We want new people to win ribbons," Bresee said. "There's room for all types of people."