On 25/2/07 07:26, in article
, "Dave Poole"
wrote:

Sacha wrote:
Every spring we have daffodils growing on top of the hedges bordering the
lanes near the house. There are masses of them. But this year we've
noticed most particularly that the stems are shorter. Our theory is that
this is because they've come out earlier than usual - anyone else got any
ideas?

I've not noticed this with the daffs growing in local hedgerows, but
most of those growing around here are naturalised garden varieties
rather than true N. pseudonarcissus. However, the winter was
exceptionally mild and many wild plants that normally die down carried
on growing including a lot of wild grasses. I wonder if it's an
optical ilusion and it's not so much that the daffs are short, but
their companion plants are unusually tall? Just a thought.

I don't think it's an optical illusion because these are growing literally
on top of the hedges and have no other planting with them, other than the
trimmed back twiggy bits of the hedge. It's the normal winter/spring set up
but it's not on the route you take to get to us. It's from the other end,
coming in from Ashburton. I don't know what variety they are but there are
great masses of them in one particular stretch of hedge, so I'm guessing
they were planted by somebody originally and then have naturalised. They're
a marvellous sight and truly lift the spirits but independently, we've both
noticed that they're shorter this year. Our only theory is that the mild
winter has opened them earlier than usual so they haven't attained full stem
length first.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)