Roland wrote "needs salted air to produce flowers >or a few times a year some spray of salt water >like Narcissus serotinus and other plants near the sea." I can attest that N. miniatus (which I am told is the correct name of most cultivated "N. serotinus") and N. serotinus itself do not need exposure to sea air or salt spray to flower, as I have been growing flowering specimens in my bulb frames for years about 175 km from the ocean, and I have also seen these species flowering in nature so far inland that they would not experience such influence, unless perhaps salt spray were picked up in a storm and fell with rain. There are other plants that are, in nature, found on beaches just above the high tide line, but that can be grown elsewhere without special chemistry, e.g. Alstroemeria pelegrina. I suspect that they are salt-tolerant rather than salt-requiring. However, it is known that plants that grow in substrates that are toxic to many plants (such as ultramafic/serpentine) may suffer more from pathogens when growing elsewhere. Perhaps the sea influence restricts some kind of disease organism that would otherwise attack the plants? Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA