{"id":2250,"date":"2017-10-30T04:49:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T12:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2017-10-30T04:52:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T12:52:43","slug":"grant-mitsch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/grant-mitsch\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Mitsch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Pipit',<\/a>
‘Pipit’, on of Grant Mitsch’s best (photo courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you haven\u2019t thought about it yet, now is a good time to plant your daffodils and other spring bulbs.\u00a0 The ones I ordered still await my tender ministrations and I hope to get them all into the ground this coming weekend.\u00a0 Of course, first I have to rake up the mountain of leaves, obligingly dropped over the past few days by the maple tree out front.\u00a0 Some excellent planting spots are currently submerged under that mountain, so it makes sense to start by removing it.\u00a0 I try to reduce the tedium inherent in leaf clearing by thinking about how beautiful the garden will look next spring when the leaves are long gone and the daffodils are blooming.<\/p>\n

Most people who know bulbs think of the Netherlands, which is the world\u2019s largest supplier of daffodils, not to mention tulips, crocuses, hyacinths and other spring-blooming beauties.\u00a0 The Dutch have long bred, grown and exported the plants and flower lovers can only be grateful.\u00a0 However, they are not the only players in the bulb breeding game.\u00a0 The world is full of dedicated narcisso-philes, who put all their energy into breeding narcissi,<\/em> commonly known as daffodils.\u00a0 And many of the best daffodils have been and continue to be bred in the United States.<\/p>\n

One of the most celebrated American daffodil breeders was Grant Mitsch\u20141907-1989–of Canby, Oregon.\u00a0 As with many noted horticulturists, Mitsch started his career early.\u00a0 As a teenager, he helped a local Presbyterian minister and gladiola enthusiast with the annual lifting of the gladiola corms in the fall.\u00a0 He began selling surplus gladiola corms at the age of 20.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter, he was introduced to his life\u2019s passion, daffodils, and in 1934, began breeding them.\u00a0 Though he bred, grew and sold other plants, daffodils became in increasing focus, and by the time Mitsch reaching his forties, he concentrated exclusively on narcissus.\u00a0 His business, Grant E. Mitsch Novelty Daffodils offered his own hybrids, as well as the best daffodils bred by others.<\/p>\n

I remember that Pauline Henry, the great American daylily breeder, once said that she bred \u201cpretty on pretty\u201d to produce the most beautiful daylilies.\u00a0 Grant Mitsch seemed to do the same with daffodils.\u00a0 He worked, early in his career, on producing better pink-cupped varieties, using the groundbreaking English cultivar, \u2018Mrs. R.O. Backhouse\u2019 as one of his foundation plants .\u00a0 Many pink or salmon-cupped offspring resulted.\u00a0 One of the best, \u2018Accent\u2019, with a coral to salmon cup and white perianth or surrounding petals, was registered in 1987 and is still popular today.<\/p>\n

Though Mitsch worked with all shapes, sizes and types of narcissus, much of his work centered on varieties grouped into three of the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s 13 narcissus categories: Triandrus, Cyclamineus and Jonquilla\/Apodanthus.\u00a0 Triandrus varieties feature two or more pendant flowers per stem, often with reflexed or back-curving petals.\u00a0 Cyclamineus types bear one flower per stem, with reflexed perianth petals.\u00a0 Each flower generally forms an acute angle with the stem and is attached to the stalk by a very short pedicels or \u201cneck\u201d.\u00a0 Jonquillas often boast up to five flowers per stem, with the perianth petals either spreading or reflexed.\u00a0 Jonquillas are often fragrant as well, and succeed in the warmer climates that are less congenial to many daffodils.<\/p>\n

Among the best-known\u2014and still available–of the Mitsch jonquillas is \u2018Pipit\u2019, registered in 1963.\u00a0 With the slender profile typical of jonquillas, \u2018Pipit\u2019 features two to three flowers per stem.\u00a0 Each bloom starts out bright yellow, but matures to white.\u00a0 The plants grow fourteen to sixteen inches tall.<\/p>\n

A triandrus type, \u2018Petrel\u2019, introduced in 1970, is one of many daffodils that Mitsch named after bird varieties.\u00a0 Petrel bears three to five pure white, fragrant blooms per stem on plants that rise between 12 and 14 inches.\u00a0 Like other triandrus, cyclaminus and jonquilla types, \u2018Petrel\u2019 is equally at home planted in-ground or in containers.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Mitsch\u2019s daffodil business and breeding efforts were taken over by his daughter, Elise Mitsch Havens and her husband, Richard in 1978.\u00a0 Like Grant Mitsch, the Havens issued a small daffodil catalog, which was renowned among daffodil fanciers for the quality and variety of its offerings.\u00a0 The Havens kept the enterprise going and thriving until just a couple of years ago, when Richard Havens died.\u00a0 Daffseek, the database of the American Daffodil Society, lists 655 Mitsch-registered varieties and an additional 59, registered to Mitsch and Havens.\u00a0 Many are no longer available, but the sheer numbers are impressive.<\/p>\n

There is still time to buy a few daffodil bulbs and get them in the ground before the soil hardens into concrete and the desire to be out in the elements lessens. It takes a bit of checking to find Mitsch bulbs, but try the \u201cSearch\u201d feature at the Dave\u2019s Garden website–https:\/\/davesgarden.com\/sitewidesearch.php?q=Mitsch.\u00a0 In the meantime, you can Buy \u2018Pipit\u2019, \u2018Petrel\u2019 and \u2018Accent\u2019 from Brent and Becky\u2019s Bulbs, 7900 Daffodil Lane Gloucester, VA 23061; (804) 693-3966 or Toll-free (877) 661-2852; www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free paper catalog.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t thought about it yet, now is a good time to plant your daffodils and other spring bulbs.\u00a0 The ones I ordered still await my tender ministrations and I hope to get them all into the ground this coming weekend.\u00a0 Of course, first I have to rake up the mountain of leaves, obligingly … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2],"tags":[1750,1749,1755,1752,1746,1747,276,1754,1745,1751,369,1748,1753],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-orange-candy","tag-pipit","tag-american-daffodils","tag-cyclamineus","tag-daffodil-breeders","tag-daffodil-hybridizers","tag-daffodils","tag-elise-havens","tag-grant-mitsch","tag-jonquilla","tag-narcissus","tag-oregon-plantsmen","tag-triandrus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2254,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}