Description
‘Duchess of Brabant’
3W-Y
[Small-cupped (Leedsii)]
(W. Backhouse, pre-1869; a ‘Minnie Hume’ hybrid)
An early Leedsii hybrid, originally called Vincenti. Many late nineteenth century Leedsiis, for example those described in Barr’s 1884 Conference Catalogue, seem to be relatively small-cupped. This Duchess is an ideal example, with a lightly ruffled, neatly ridged cup of rich primrose-yellow, which becomes more widely flared but remains pale yellow at maturity (unlike its parent ‘Minnie Hume’, which turns white). Kirby (Daffodils, Narcissus and how to grow them, New York, 1914 ed.) describes it as “A popular free-flowering dwarf variety often grown … for cutting and naturalising”. Hartland agrees in his 1887 “Original” Little Book of Daffodils.
