It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Wendy Akers on Saturday 5th August 2017.
Wendy loved daffodils. She grew daffodils, showed daffodils, judged daffodils, fell in love with species , enjoying many daffodil hunting expeditions with husband James and daffodil friends and painted them most beautifully.
I remember once receiving a prize rosette from Wombwell, a place I had never visited let alone entered a daffodil show. Wendy had rescued a splendid Rainbow of mine from the Daffodil Society show to take home to paint. A week later it was still so good that she thought it deserved to be seen by a wider audience and she entered in my name at Wombwell show and sent me the winning rosette.
Wendy was a kind, generous, funny and elegant woman with an aura of calm. She was the President of the Daffodil Society: Northern group, a former member of the Daffodil Society Committee and the RHS Show schedule Committee and the Editorial board of the RHS Daffodil and Tulip yearbook. She contributed many articles to both the Daffodil Society and the RHS and for many years she was a meticulous proof reader for their respective publications. She will be missed by very many.
Our sincere condolences to husband James, their children and families.
Details of the funeral arrangements to follow. Should anyone wish to contact James but not have an email or postal address please contact 
Jackie Petherbridge. President
It was with great sadness I learned of the passing of the lovely lady, in every sense of the word, of Wendy Akers. She had a charming manner and lovely turn of phrase both vocally and in the written word which made her such a pleasing companion. The daffodil and tulip world will miss her greatly, none more so than her family to whom I offer my sincere condolences.
Reg Nicholl
I was very saddened yesterday afternoon by news of the passing of Wendy Akers. Wendy made both an important contribution of her own to our enjoyment of daffodils and did much to enable James to do likewise. This was recognized by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in 2010 when they awarded the Peter Barr Memorial Cup jointly to James and Wendy, on the grounds that they both met the requirement of being ‘someone…who has done good work of some kind in connection with daffodils’.
Like many members of the Daffodil Society I first met Wendy when she and James joined the Committee many years ago and helped to run the annual show and edit its publications. I remember her as always being courteous, pleasant in conversation and constructive at meetings.
Wendy famously turned up at the Harrogate Show one year with a single daffodil in her basket and went home with the Best Bloom in Show award; a remarkable achievement. In recent years Wendy focused particularly on successfully exhibiting miniatures and species daffodils but also exhibited hyacinths and tulips at RHS Competitions from time to time.. She was a thorough and well respected judge at major daffodil shows.
Many years ago James came to the rescue of the then RHS Daffodil and Tulip Yearbook by offering to prepare copy for publication, thereby avoiding the RHS staff costs that threatened its existence, They also acted as stock holders and mail order distributors for several years. Wendy supported James fully with these time consuming and often inconvenient tasks and despite significant eyesight problems proof read copy annually. An elegant writer, Wendy contributed many show reports, book reviews and accounts of searching for wild daffodils to the Yearbook. Along with James Wendy was also for many years a very active member of the Show Schedule Panel that advised and assisted Shows Department in the running of RHS daffodil, hyacinth and tulip shows.
Wendy will be very much missed by her many friends. My thoughts at this sad time are with James and his family.
The first we heard of Wendy was from her Daffnet emails. She always had a light and gracious message. We were able to meet both James and Wendy in person when visiting England in 2008. Wendy and James were another couple like Ben and I who are dedicated to something that we feel very strongly about.
We heard how busy both James and Wendy were with the RHS Yearbook, and since we are both fans of this publication, we were very impressed with the effort they both must have contributed. Even though we did not spend very much time with James and Wendy, we held both in the highest regard.
Surely Wendy will be missed by daffodil friends around the world.
Just so sorry for your loss, James.
Wendy was a lovely person and I’m certain that she will also be sorely missed by all of us.