ENUMCLAW, Washington. – A new flower was accidentally discovered in Washington. It is unique, beautiful and goes by the name “Narcissus”.

Kelsey Hall, owner of Cattle and Cut Flowers in Enumclaw, Washington, with her newly discovered ‘Daffodahlia’ flower. (Photo: @cattleandcutflowers via Instagram)

Cattle and Cut Flowers, a local flower farm in Enumclaw, has been growing dahlias since 2018. Earlier this month, Kelsey Hall, who runs the farm, began posting photos and videos of the flower, which has since gone viral and even garnered attention from Martha Stewart.

From left to right: Daffodil (Getty Images), Daffodil (@cattleandcutflowers), Dahlia (Getty Images)

The flower shop takes flower lovers on their journey via Instagram. What started as a potentially worrying disease outbreak in the garden has now turned into a quest to find out if her dahlias have mutated into an entirely new species. Now scientists at Washington State University are conducting tests.

On September 5, Hall posted a video of the flower and asked viewers if it might be a new form of dahlia. “I discovered a so-called daffodil dahlia hanging in my bridal tunnel dahlias,” she wrote on Instagram. Numerous verified Instagram accounts of the flower shop commented on the video, praising its beauty and imploring the flower shop to try to make more.

One user commented: “Daffodahlia!!!!” This has become the top comment with 345 likes and appears to be the origin of the flower’s name.

Although the floral community was quite excited, the possibility of genetic deformation was of great concern to Hall.

“I do not believe these genetics are stable and we may not want them to be spread throughout the dahlia community,” she wrote. “This is happening with a plant that is a well-known dahlia that has been around in the dahlia world for a long time. It started out normal, but as the season progressed it began to transform into this plant and only produces these identical blooms.”

Daffodils (Photos: Kelsey Hall at Cattle and Cut Flowers)

During the daffodil trip, Hall had spoken to other growers, trying to learn more about this phenomenon and whether it might be caused by a virus or disease. A grower responded and said he had experienced a similar dahlia bloom, but it was only a single bloom and he had not produced similar blooms since.

For cattle and cut flowers, daffodils bloomed on more than one plant from the same stand. Not all plants in the stand bloom this way and not every flower appears in this unique form. However, as time goes on, more and more daffodils appear.

Hall then sent some of her daffodils to Washington State University for further testing while she conducted her own studies.

Martha Stewart reacts to the discovery of the daffodil on Instagram

On Sept. 20, she announced she would continue with the Daffodahlia after WSU’s tests came back negative for any disease or virus.

“There are bioinformatics tests, but science is still at a stage where these tests are very expensive and return so much information that it can be overwhelming and researchers are just figuring out how to deal with such data.” Hall wrote on Instagram. “We are confident that we are not spreading any known disease in our field and that the plants are healthy.”

Martha Stewart found out about the flower and shared photos of it on her personal Instagram account.

“I knew it was coming because I spoke to her team before, but I was pretty shocked when they reached out,” Hall said when asked about her reaction to Martha Stewart’s repost.

Hall is now working to determine whether the mutation can be stabilized. She lets the flowers stay on the plants and will harvest the seeds to see if the plants can pass on the genes to the next generation.

Before daffodils hit the market, Cattle and Cut Flowers will first confirm that the genetics are stable. In addition, there is no guarantee that these flowers will bloom like this next season.

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