Daffodils
dANCING WITH THE DAFFODILS. FROM 10 KILOS in the 1980’s to NOW ALMOST three million bunches CROPPED a year on the farm.
Jack Buck Farms grow around 250 acres of Daffodils in Moulton. The flowers are grown for the cut flower market and the bulbs are sold as dry bulbs. Both the flowers and bulbs are sold within the United Kingdom and exported abroad, sometimes flowers go to the USA.
One of our varieties, Tamsyn, is exclusive to Jack Buck as we bought the entire stock of ten kilos in the 1980’s. It is very early, often ready in January, gets a good length and has an excellent vase life. From the original ten kilos we now crop around three million bunches.
After the Christmas holidays our Tamsyn begins to show signs of being ready to crop, (weather dependent). Cropping of the flowers is done by hand, and up to 200 pickers descend on the farm and pick daffodils, This is all piecework, into bunches of 10’s, 16’s or 20’s depending on the customer. Many of our pickers travel from Romania for the ten week season. The work is hard but a good cropper will earn more than £1000 per week. Now we have left the European Union, it is unlikely that these people will be allowed to come and our business will probably be much smaller in the future. It will be very difficult to automate this task.
Once the daffodil flower season has finished
The daffodils are left in the ground to wilt and die off allowing all the goodness back into the bulb. Commercially grown daffodil bulbs are usually left in the ground for 2 or 3 years to grow. During this time, the bulb multiplies up in the ground so one bulb could become 6 or more.
We lift and dry daffodil bulbs in June and July, followed by grading continuing into August with some bulbs to be sold and others replanted after hot water treatment for pest and disease control.
