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Mill Creek MetroParks hosts daffodil show
By TIM CLEVELAND
On April 19 and 20, 7,600 people passed through the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center at Fellows Riverside Gardens for the Narcissus plant collection weekend event at Mill Creek MetroParks.
“Fellows Riverside Gardens has maintained a Narcissus plant collection for the past 30 years,” said Mill Creek MetroParks Horticulture Director Keith Kaiser. “When the Davis Education and Visitor Center opened in December 2000, one of the programming features for the visitors to enjoy was offering flower shows. The first Daffodil Show was in 2002. The show officially became a sanctioned American Daffodil Society Show in 2004.”
This year the daffodil show attracted 229 entries, slightly down from the 249 entries last year.
“This was a bit down from past years, mostly due to the late blooming of the Narcissus outdoors,” Kaiser said. “If the show would have been this coming week, we would have had more entries since more would have been in bloom. In 2012 the show was cancelled since the Narcissus all were in bloom a complete month before the show weekend. In 2008 we had over 500 entries; the timing was perfect that year.”
Entries for the daffodil show came from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana. Award ribbons were given for first, second, third and honorable mention in each class. Plus, there were approximately a dozen American Daffodil Awards given out.
“The Fellows Riverside Gardens Daffodil Show as a great success,” Kaiser said. “First, the gardeners were able to enter their blooms to show; the visitors were educated about daffodils and saw a the amazing diversity that exists beyond what is thought of, the common yellow bloom. Exhibited were white, pink, orange, red and yellow – along with many interesting color combinations and different shaped blooms. Plus, the whole Daffodil Weekend showed visitors over 200 different varieties of Narcissus outdoors in the Gardens along with the Show indoors.
“Fellows Riverside Gardens is an official display garden of the American Daffodil Society,” Kaiser continued. “If you want additional information, visit the American Daffodil Society website www.daffodilusa.org.”