Narcissus 'Beersheba'

'Beersheba' on Thursday - just a hint of creaminess remains in the trumpet.

One of my annual pleasures is to have a vase of Narcissus 'Beersheba' on my desk for a few days each spring, enabling me to be distracted easily by its beauty. It was introduced by the Rev George H Engleheart in 1923 and very quickly became popular, as the first all-white trumpet daffodil of its size. Although an 'old' daffodil it is not small, reaching 12 cm across these flowers, and with the potential to be bigger if they were grown in rich conditions - but this is plenty big enough for me. Despite its size it remains elegant, with enough 'movement' in the corolla to avoid stiffness, and the narrow trumpet expands into a nice flange at its mouth. Bowles described this as having the outline of a Convolvulus flower, though I don't see it, but his observation that the corolla lobes form two perfect triangles is perfectly true.

It is a great shame that this beauty is not easy to obtain, with the crass 'Ice Follies' or lumpish 'Mount Hood' being the standard white daffodils of commerce. No source is listed for 'Beersheba' in The RHS Plant Finder 2014, but it's offered by Croft 16  Daffodils in the UK, and by Old House Gardens in the United States, so it can be acquired - and I very much recommend its acquisition.

The play of light within the flowers is wonderful: pure white by today.

Early morning in the garden, 6/4/15. The flowers open with a pale lemon trumpet, but it quickly fades to ivory then pure white.