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By 1916, concern among British daffodil growers had reached panic levels. A mysterious disease was sweeping through the many ornamental varieties of plants in the Narcissus genus—popular garden flowers and a substantial source of income for commercial horticulturalists. Growers watched helplessly as their daffodils’ leaves twisted, the bulbs discolored, and the plants withered and died.
“It was a massive deal,” says Fiona Davison, head of libraries and exhibitions at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in London. “Commercial growers could see years’ worth of work wiped out in one season.”
Many horticulturalists suspected that the disease was caused by a fungus, but no one could figure out how to halt the die-offs. So, at a March 1916 meeting of the RHS’s Narcissus and Tulip Committee, one attendee proposed an urgent resolution: that the RHS investigate what was infecting the plants and devise a plan to defeat it.
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