Peter Barr – The Daffodil King

​Peter Barr is largely responsible for the bright yellow that lights up our hedgerows, gardens, parks and woodlands every spring. The Daffodil King, as he was known in the 19th century, would transform the British landscape and the horticultural industry for the next two centuries.

A love of daffodils

His father, an amateur florist, grew tulips on the banks of the River Clyde and it was from his father that his love for flowers came from. Barr reportedly said in an interview that he was, “born within a few yards of a tulip bed, and I have been amongst flowers ever since”. 

The Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser wrote in a piece on 22 April 1898: “The daffydowndilly, as the unsophisticated sometimes call it now”, were considered “general unfashionable, owing it is said, to the distaste of a great lady, (Queen Victoria) to that colour (yellow).” Despite being unfashionable, they captured Barr’s imagination and he went on to bring this delicate cheerful flower home from hillsides and rock faces to sell to the masses. Although taking plants from the wild would now be considered unsustainable and unethical, importing and exporting wild plants was frequently adopted in the 1800s.

Barr’s searching grounds were where many wild narcissus grew – the Iberian peninsula. On  22 April 1898 The Torquay Times and South Devon Advertiser, article reported:

“...he had been sleeping in the open air under rocks, and was naturally travel stained.” Comparing Barr to a character in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the journal went on to say, “Like Sancho Panza, he rode a donkey. His chief garment was a blanket, which covered himself and much of his steel....His appearance was suspicious, and his position awkward, for he could not speak Spanish...Luckily he had a passport, and was, after some delay, permitted to continue his search for new daffodils. In that pursuit he has been successful on many occasions in Spain and Portugal, where the daffodil is more at home and shows a greater number of varieties than anywhere else.”

Adventures in plant hunting

Barr took with him a travel diary and findings were documented. An entry dated 17 June 1887 details his adventures in the Pyrenees:

In 1861, Barr set up a number of small nurseries in Tooting and his business Messrs Barr & Sons bought 25 acres in Long Ditton, Surrey – making him one of the most influential people in the bulb industry. A newspaper clipping entitled ‘The Daffodil King’ said the only other man close to claiming the title was Dorian Smith, “but that gentleman is too content with his ownership of the Scilly Isles to enter on a vain rivalry.”

It urged readers to catch a train and witness the gorgeous cacophony of yellow flowers at Barr’s nursery:

Creating a legacy

The Scotsman sought out old collections of daffodils from breeders and brought them together in his nursery – creating a collection of over 400 varieties. He was, in a sense, an early pioneer in

Gardeners often use the word variety when referring to a specific plant, but the correct botanical term is 'cultivar'. Whichever word you use, it means a distinctive plant or plants, given a specific cultivar name and usually bred to enhance certain characteristics, such as flower or fruit size, colour, flavour or fragrance, plant size, hardiness, disease resistance, etc. Additionally, it is worth knowing that, botanically, variety has another meaning - it refers to a naturally-occurring distinct plant that only has slight differences in its looks. For example, Malva alcea var. fastigiata differs from typical plants by having an upright habit.

Barr devised a system for classifying the cultivated varieties of daffodils published in his nursery catalogues, which was adopted by the RHS as the basis for the classified lists issued from 1908 onwards. These lists established the RHS as the authority on naming of daffodil varieties and so in 1955, the RHS became the International Cultivar Registration Authority for Narcissus. Barr’s work could be said to be the foundation of the compilation of over 30,000 different daffodil names the RHS holds today.

The first white trumpet daffodil was named in his honour and put on sale at 50 guineas a bulb in 1903 – the equivalent today is over £7,000. Since 1912, those who have shown remarkable work in the field of daffodils are annually awarded the RHS Peter Barr Memorial Cup.

The passing of a horticultural icon

© RHS Lindley Collections

Peter Barr’s obituary in The Gardener’s Chronicle newspaper of 25 September 1909, available in the RHS Lindley Library, talks of how in his later years he settled in Kirn, near Dunoon on the banks of the Clyde with a garden devoted to trials of primulas and hellebores.

Barr married and had seven children, yet never stopped in his quest to develop the flower. In his 70s, he travelled through South America, Japan and China in search of other new flowers. Involved in horticulture to the end, he died on 17 September 1909 of heart failure, only a week after a trip to the RHS’s Lindley Halls in London and was buried in Islington Cemetery that week. His final gravestone a modest marker, compared with the lasting legacy he brought to British gardens and landscapes.

• Discover more about Peter Barr in the RHS Digital Collections.