Like buried treasure, the 200,000 or so daffodils growing in the two acres of bulb fields and glasshouses surrounding the home and nursery of Dave and Jules Hardy in rural Omagh, Co. Tyrone, represent a distinguished horticultural bloodline that encompasses the work of many of Northern Ireland’s greatest breeders and exhibitors.
Established in 2016, the couple’s small specialist bulb business, Esker Farm Daffodils, incorporates the ‘stable’ of Nial and Hilary Watson of Ringhaddy Daffodils, Newtownards, Co. Down, whose stock they acquired in 2017. That acquisition included the Watsons’ own award-winning daffodil breeding work as well as the work of hugely respected Omagh-based hybridiser Brian Duncan and his wife Betty, and Sir Frank Harrison of Ballydorn Bulb Farm in Killinchy, Co. Down. Peel it back another layer and the same bloodline includes contributions from the Duncans’ long-time mentor, the late Tom
