Mr Brown was awarded champion daffodil for a New Zealand-bred pink daffodil called Pacific Dream at the Dunedin Horticultural Society's Spring Flower Show at Forbury Park.
He was one of 15 daffodil competitors who displayed 363 daffodils.
It had been a very challenging season due to the warmer winter and spring winds.
''I grow on a windswept hillside and have to forage and hunt for show flowers,'' Mr Brown said.
The wind meant many of the flowers had been destroyed before opening, he said.
After being introduced to daffodil-growing by an uncle, he kept acquiring different bulbs.
''I started from humble beginnings of about 20 to 30 now I've got 1800 to 2000 varieties.''
They grew in 16m-long rows across ''three-quarters of an acre'' and he now had about 52,000 ''on my books''.
Society publicity officer Bert Hill said entries in the daffodil section were up on previous years, possibly due to the cooler weather in the past two weeks being just what late-flowering daffodils needed.
The daffodils were judged on their shape, colour and appearance, he said.
