On 13 Mar, 13:37, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:
On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:22:36 -0700 (PDT), Dave Hill

wrote:
I have found over the years that the late planted daffs normaly flower
first year but often dont flower the 2nd year as they didn't build
enough into the bulb, but after that flower as normal.
I found a fer packs of daffs and tulips that the wife had bought and
had forgoten about so planted them into pots yesterday.

The ones I planted were very late. So late I could call it early for
the following year. The garden is alive with lots of small daff
varieties. The larger flowered ones have been and gone.

I got a message from a friend who is a commercial grower with a
picture of her fields of daffs. They are timed to flower late. It
seems late flowering daffs are almost as profitable as earlies.

Another interesting daff development is in drug production. Apparently
those varieties don't flower at all. I forget which drug they produce
from the roots.

Steve

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Farmers in Wales could soon be growing fields of daffodils to provide
a cheap source of a compound used in drugs to combat dementia.
Trials to harvest the country's national flower - and Wordsworth's
inspiration - for its medicinal qualities are under way and the
scientist behind the idea hopes full-scale local production could
begin next year.

Professor Trevor Walker and colleagues hope to perfect methods of
extracting the compound from bulbs, and land in the Black Mountains
has been turned over to supplying the raw material. Studies carried
out with the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research at the
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, have been encouraging, said Prof
Walker. "We were testing the theory that if we stressed the plants by
growing them at altitude they would produce more of the plant alkaloid
galanthamine, which has proven effective in the treatment of
Alzheimer's disease.

"The tests showed that the compound was generally found in much higher
levels in the daffodils grown at 1,400 feet in the Black Mountains
compared with the same varieties planted in Pembrokeshire at sea
level. Our elderly population will benefit by having this substance
available to them at affordable prices. It will also help the local
economy by giving Welsh hill farmers, some of whom are pretty
desperate to eke out a living, something else to farm other than
uplands oats or sheep."

Prof Walker is founder of a research and development company called
Alzeim and he is talking to companies which could turn extract into
tablet form. Natural galanthamine is gathered in wild plants of the
snowdrop family, which includes the Narcissus or common daffodil, in
the Balkans and in China. Synthetic versions are expensive.

Some of the work on daffodils has been financed by a rural development
programme funded by the European Union. Its manager, Lee Price, said
the success of the field trials "could be a godsend for our upland
farmers as well as a breakthrough in the treatment of the symptoms of
a terrible disease, which already afflicts more than 650,000 people in
the UK".

David Hill
Abacus Nurseries