Narcissus calcicola
Rodger Whitlock (Wed, 02 Apr 2003 10:06:15 PST)
On 30 Mar 03 at 14:00, Arnold wrote:
The bulb is native to Central Portugal and as the name implies it
grows in calcareous soil, due to the presence of limestone but
Henning Christiansen has shown the pockets of soil it grows in have
been found to be very acid around pH 5.9
pH 5.9 is not "very acid". Horticultural neutrality (as opposed to
chemical neutrality) is often taken as pH 6.5. Blueberries, which
are real acid lovers, demand a pH somewhere down around 4.0. That's
truly acid soil!
"Somewhat acid but with reasonable amounts of calcium" would be a
better description. (I'm assuming that the adjacent limestone
puts some calcium into the soil -- did he analyze it for that?)
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"To co-work is human,
to cow-ork, bovine."