# Alec Gray (horticulturalist)

Alec Gray (1895-1986) was an English nurseryman and horticulturalist. He was notable as an authority on and breeder of daffodils, having developed over 100 new cultivars over a career spanning 60 years. In his free time he was also an enthusiastic archaeologist and poet.

## Life and career

Alec Gray was born in London in 1895. During he First World War he served in the Royal Marines, which led him to be awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. After the First World War had ended he qualified in fruit growing and worked in North Devon before managing the Gulval Ministry Experimental Station near Penzance. In the 1923 he moved on to work as a farm manager at the Duchy Farm on the Isles of Scilly, which is where his passion for daffodils and the Isles of Scilly was kindled. He established a small collection of daffodil varieties, and by the 1930s started to register new varieties himself. Gray would remain working at Duchy Farm up until 1963 and would continue to visit Scilly on annually after that.
During the 1940s Gray founded the business Broadleigh Gardens at Bishops Hull. He would also go on to establish a nursery at Treswithian near Camborne where he ran a nursery business throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He kept Broadleigh Gardens for many years before selling it in 1972. Gray was also an amateur archaeologist and was one of the first people to excavate a stone age village at Bant's Carn. In 1972 his and others' archaeological findings would be published collectively in the book, Cornish Archaeology; volume 11. In 1979 he would also go on to publish a book of his own titled To Scilly, which was filled with poems he had written inspired by his time on the Isles of Scilly.
Gray specialised in miniature daffodils, many bred from plants collected on trips to Southern Europe. Whilst some miniatures had been bred previously, Gray effectively created the modern form of miniature daffodil, originally as inadvertently during his attempts to breed early-flowering larger varieties. Amongst the cultivars he subsequently developed was Narcissus 'Tête-à-Tête', first grown in the 1940s, and which became the most widely grown miniature variety despite Gray initially being unimpressed with the plant. "Tête-à-Tête" remains an extremely commercially significant variety: by 2006 it made up some 34% of the total Dutch daffodil bulb trade, with 17 million pots sold at auction. A number of his other varieties won the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit, including "Elka", "Jumblie", "Minnow" and "Sun Disc".
Gray retired in 1984 and died only two years later in 1986. After his death, Gray's daffodil collection was sold to Walter Stagg and then to Lady Skelmersdale of Broadleigh Gardens near Taunton. The various narcissus species, hybrids and cultivars are now part of a National Collection at Broadleigh Gardens where they are maintained, propagated and can be visited.

## Narcissus cultivars

Below is a comprehensive list of the 115 Narcissus cultivars bred by Alec Gray.
Alec Gray's Narcissus Cultivars :
| Cultivar Name | Date Introduced |
| Angie | 1948 |
| Anticipation | 1975 |
| April Tears | 1939 |
| Arctic Morn | 1949 |
| Bebop | 1949 |
| Bergh | 1951 |
| Bobbysoxer | 1949 |
| Bucca | 1959 |
| Camborne | 1995 |
| Candlepower | 1975 |
| Charles Warren | 1948 |
| Chinese Lantern | 1955 |
| Chough | 1958 |
| Clare | 1968 |
| Cobweb | 1938 |
| Cornet | 1953 |
| Demure | 1953 |
| Dilly | 1958 |
| Doncella | 1967 |
| Doublebois | 1962 |
| Dutch Quince | 1986 |
| Elfhorn | 1948 |
| Elfhorn# | 1941 |
| Elka | 1989 |
| Exit | 1999 |
| Flomay | 1946 |
| Flute | 1957 |
| Frosty Morn | 1941 |
| Gambas | 1964 |
| Gipsy Queen | 1969 |
| Gnome | 1967 |
| Goldsithney | 1949 |
| Green Ginger | 1975 |
| Halingy | 1949 |
| Helada | 1961 |
| Hifi | 1959 |
| Home Guard | 1941 |
| Hors d'Oeuvre | 1959 |
| Ivory Gate | 1949 |
| Jana | 1949 |
| Jetage | 1957 |
| Jethan | 1967 |
| Johanna | 1950 |
| Jumblie | 1952 |
| Keats | 1968 |
| Kehelland | 1946 |
| Kenellis | 1948 |
| Kidling | 1951 |
| Land Girl | 1944 |
| Leenan | 1952 |
| Little Dancer | 1977 |
| Little Dawn | 1977 |
| Little Sentry | 1984 |
| Lively Lady | 1969 |
| Lucy Gray | 1974 |
| March Breeze | 1954 |
| Marionette | 1946 |
| Mary Plumstead | 1954 |
| Marychild | 1956 |
| Millennium | 1972 |
| Miniskirt | 1967 |
| Minnow | 1962 |
| Mitzi | 1955 |
| Mitzy | 1955 |
| Mustardseed | 1937 |
| Nolyn | 2007 |
| Opening Bid | 1975 |
| Pango | 1949 |
| Paula Cottell | 1961 |
| Peaseblossom | 1938 |
| Pendrathen | 1956 |
| Perconger | 1941 |
| Phyllida Garth | 1948 |
| Picoblanco | 1961 |
| Pipers Barn | 1947 |
| Poppet | 1958 |
| Promise | 1974 |
| Quince | 1953 |
| Raindrop | 1942 |
| Rikki | 1962 |
| Roger | 1952 |
| Rosaline Murphy | 1958 |
| Rosedown | 1949 |
| Rupert | 1961 |
| Saint Helens | 1941 |
| Sea Gift | 1923 |
| Segovia | 1962 |
| Shady | 1962 |
| Shrew | 1950 |
| Shrimp | 1955 |
| Sidhe | 1944 |
| Skelmersdale Gold | 1986 |
| Skiffle | 1957 |
| Sneezy | 1956 |
| Snug | 1957 |
| Soltar | 1961 |
| Sprite | 1972 |
| Stafford | 1956 |
| Stella Turk | 1958 |
| Sugarbush | 1954 |
| Sun Disc | 1946 |
| Sundial | 1955 |
| Tanagra | 1946 |
| Tête-à-Tête | 1949 |
| Thoughtful | 1951 |
| Tiddler | 1962 |
| Tosca | 1969 |
| Tweeny | 1950 |
| Votive Candle | 1967 |
| West Wind | 1958 |
| Wolf | 1935 |
| Xit | 1948 |
| Yamolf | 1950 |
| Yellow Xit | 1968 |
| Yindee | 1957 |