Narcissus

(Introductions by Rev. G. Engleheart)

This National Collection is dispersed over 8 sites. The Collection is open for viewing at all 8 sites. However some sites have many more cultivars than others. The locations below are listed in order of the number of cultivars present. The Open Day at Columbine Hall is Sunday 29th April 2018. Here you will see the greatest number of cultivars. All other viewing is by appointment directly with the owner. The best time for viewing is March & April. A large percentage of the collection are Narcissus poeticus cultivars and they are the very last daffodils to flower but there are examples of all groups of daffodils within the collection.

Telephone numbers and email address below:

Columbine Hall, Stowupland, Stowmarket. Contact Head Gardener Kate Elliott: katesusanelliott@gmail.com
Darren Andrews: waspfactory72@yahoo.co.uk01473 822987
Anne Tweddle: anne@tweddle1.co.uk 01473 737337
Neil Bradfield: nbradfield@hotmail.co.uk 01787 211816
Mavis Smith: mavissmith01@btinternet.com 01449 615458
Nick Stanley: nickpatstanley@btinternet.com 01473 785585
Karen De Rosa: gardendiva@btinternet.com
Maggie Thorpe: maggiethorpe37@gmail.com 01787 211346

The map shows the location of the sites where cultivars are growing.

National Collection of Narcissus (Introductions by Rev. G. Engleheart)
The collection is classified as a historic collection, and its scope covers all Narcissus bred and introduced by Rev. George Herbert Engleheart. The collection is owned by Suffolk Group of Plant Heritage. In September 2017, we were granted National Collection status. We have collected 34 cultivars, and know of another 4 in the UK but not yet in our collection. Conservation is a big part of the aims of this collection and we will be propagating our cultivars and hope to have them for sale from time to time. Initially they will be for sale at Suffolk Plant Heritage group events and Plant fairs.

The Rev. George Engleheart
So who was Engleheart? Although some information concerning his life is obscure, he was clearly a horticulturalist of note. Born in Guernsey in 1851, by the 1880’s George Engleheart was a vicar, living at Appleshaw in Hampshire. Here, he started experimenting in the breeding of Narcissus. He seems not to have concentrated on any particular group(s) of Narcissus and produced cultivars of many kinds over the years. His selections were informed by a wish to improve the features of the daffodil valued by the gardener and florist.

Will Scarlet

In 1897 N. ‘Ellen Willmott’ was shown and awarded an RHS 1^st Class Certificate. The following year he exhibited N. ‘Will Scarlett’ and sold three bulbs for £100 (that is 1898 value, not 2017!). With introductions of this quality, it is no surprise that his cultivars were becoming well known, particularly for superior flower size and form, vigour and for increasing freely. In 1900 the RHS awarded him the Victoria Medal of Honour for achievements in Daffodil breeding.

Encouraged by these successes, in 1901 he bought and moved to Little Clarendon at Dinton, Wlitshire, with 27 acres of land, to allow him to further his work. At about this time he became great friends with John Charles Williams of Caerhays Castle in Cornwall, both of whom had an interest in narcissus cultivation. In 1926 the RHS also awarded Engleheart the Veitch Memorial Medal, which is given to “persons… who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture”.

Rev Engleheart devoted much of his life to Narcissus, breeding over 700 named forms by the time of his death in 1936. The life of a rural vicar was not particularly demanding in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries and he was one of several gentleman-clergyman, who became serious horticulturalists of their times. There are stories of parishioners arriving at church to find a notice pinned to the door, reading, ‘No