REPLY: New tazetta narcissus breeding?

Is anyone out there successfully breeding the tazettas with other narcissus
to produce larger flowers and who are also selling the bulbs? I have
several tazettas but I must say, unless they are planted right up front,
they are lost in a flower bed due to the small size of the flowers.

In the entire world, there are few breeders -- not more than one could count
on the fingers of one hand. One of the best is Bill Welch of California
(whom, I expect, will also reply to this message, but from a much greater
knowledge base).

Pure tazettas tend to have small flowers but a considerable number of them on
each stem. Many of the hybrids (the few older ones that still exist and are
grown) tend to have larger flowers but fewer of them, in general.
'Avalanche' is a hybrid (whose origins are obscure) that has a great bush of
leaves but also stout stems of twenty-thirty, inch wide flowers. Large
flowered white and red hybrids would be 'Martha Washington' and 'Geranium'
both of which will provide considerable garden effect when grown in ten to
twenty bulb swaths. Both of these are hybrids between tazetta and poeticus
and are known as "poetaz."

Interestingly, 200 years ago, there were more tazetta hybrids (100s) being
grown than any other type. Nowadays, this has dwindled to less than 35.

'Chinita' and 'Matador' are just two hybrids with flowers of yellow and red.
A medium yellow with large flowers would be 'Highfield Beauty.' This can
have up to four blooms 2.5-3" wide although the orange color in the crown is
usually limited to just a rim.

Interestingly, 'Matador' is one hybrid that has a degree of fertility as a
pod parent. A number of decent hybrids have been raised from this clone that
are a considerable improvement on it. One, registered by Bill Welch, is
called 'Bright Spot.' It often has up to five, bright yellow flowers on each
stem, each bloom centered by a bright spot of orange-red color. Bill has
said that when he offers cut flowers of this one, it goes before anything
else! It is available from a few growers, as well as from Bill. One of the
older Division 8 hybrids that is a marvelous garden plant (with smaller, less
floppy leaves!) is 'Golden Dawn,' an Oregon Bulb Farms hybrid. It has a
wonderful fragrance and bears half a dozen smallish flowers per stem but
several stems per bulb. It makes an attractive garden display in Spring
(when grown in quantity), rather than mid to late Winter as is typical for
the pure tazetta types.

Bill is beginning to release some of the hybrids he has created. While these
first ones tend more toward white, cream and lemon, there are many more of
brighter coloring in the pipeline.

Grant Mitsch created a series of wonderful hybrids between Matador and N.
jonquilla (Falconet, Hoopoe, Mot Mot, Radiant Gem, etc.). They are all
varying shades of yellow with orange-red crowns and are marked by a wonderful
blend of the tazetta and jonquil perfumes.

There are still more, if anyone is interested!!

Dave Karnstedt