Daffodil grower wins top horticultural award

A prolific daffodil grower has been given the highest honour by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Ron Scamp received the Victoria Medal of Honour for his decades of growing and showing daffodils across the world.

The award was named after Queen Victoria, and in recognition of her 63-year reign, only 63 medals are held at any one time.

Mr Scamp, from Falmouth, told BBC Radio Cornwall: "Truthfully, I was overwhelmed, it's the finest award... the best award that any grower of flowers or plants can have."

He said his interest in daffodils began when he was eight or nine years old when he picked flowers for his grandmother on their farm in the Tamar Valley National Landscape (formerly known as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in Devon and Cornwall.

Since then, he said the interest "had never gone away".

Of his and his wife Maureen's work, he said: "In our collection we peaked at 2,500 different varieties and that included many I had bred myself.

"The motivation was to create top show flowers. We used to send daffodils all over the world and we won several awards from the American Daffodil Society."

Mr Scamp said the blooms were judged on their quality, definition and the way they were presented.

When asked about his favourite variety, he said: "The very last daffodil I picked is my favourite. There are so many that are perfect in my eyes."

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