REPLY2: [pbs] Smaller Narcissus - PBS and Alpine Topic of the Week

I was interested in reading about Narcissus rupicola in both introductions
since that was a recent offering to the BX from Ernie O'Byrne. So this
sentence caught my eye.

<<>This is not particularly easy to grow in captivity, although, when happy,
it can be long lived for a species.<>>

And Nancy suggested growing this in a screen house. Since it is under cover
of snow, will it be cold enough for me to be able to grow it? Or should I be
sharing my BX seeds with someone else?

Dave, could you or others tell us your secret of growing Narcissus from seed
to flowering size?

I use one gallon, plastic nursery cans and a gritty mix made up of part of
the indigenous soil, pumice and a gritty potting soil. I'll add more humus for
N. cyclamineus. The pots are kept in the shade for the rest of summer and
lightly watered, more heavily during the winter months (rainfall if set into the
soil or from a hose if not submerged). It's always a pleasant surprise when
around now the hair-like leaves emerge here in California from the pots of the
more valuable ones that I bring back with me for the winter. Those leaves are
so fine they look for all the world like green hair. As the days lengthen,
the pots get increasing amounts of sun, although not full sun the first season.
I place the pot inside the next size up to protect it from the sun's heat;
there is usually a good inch all around the pot (for air movement) containing
the seedlings.

The crucial thing with daffodil seed is to plant it as soon as the pod
ripens. I will get the cyclamineus seed into the soil within a few days of
collecting the pods. This is the way 'ol Ma Nature does it and I figure she knows a
good many things I don't. Emulating her has proven successful.

Only one species demands the soil be quite damp and cool during dormancy and
that is N. cyclamineus. If the soil dries out, the bulbs will die. For
nearly all of the others, I simply set the pots under cover shaded from the sun and
leave them until I start watering them in fall. If these are pots that I
lift from the soil out in the open where they've spent the growing season, the
soil is usually wet enough that it takes many weeks to dry out. If the species
are grown in the field, I will often shade the soil to prevent it from heating
in the dog days of summer. Thus, it remains dryish and not as warm as the
soil outside of the protected area (a sheet of plywood set on bricks).

For a number of years early on, I left those pots (unwatered) out in the
midday sun to "bake" as was the "commonly accepted wisdom" for getting these
things to bloom regularly. I don't recall they did as well as when there was a bit
of moisture in the root zone. Narcissus will often keep a few of the
previous season's roots alive during dormancy or the contractile roots that often
sprout will also stay alive for a long time afterward.

Jim Wells, a noted grower of species and miniatures (nearly everything in a
greenhouse), used to unpot everything each year and lay the cleaned bulbs out
on the surface of the dry soil and cover over the pots with several layers of
newspaper until time to replant. He was quite successful with this method. He
often complained that it was impossible to find the right kind of soil, i.e.,
the open fibrous "loam" that results when one piles up layers of sod for a
year to decompose. He also dusted each bulb with a mixture of fungicide powders
(e.g., Captan, Benlate, etc.) before replanting. It was his point of view
that this was necessary to bring basal rot under control. As far as I know, all
of his bulbs went through the dormant season dry. The weakest bulbs
succumbed and were removed and the strongest survived to multiply. Like many growers,
his desire was to develop seed grown strains of the species. The nearly
insurmountable problem is always where and how to obtain most of them!! Even so
noted a personage as this gentlemen was not always successful in his quest!

The Barwick (bulbocodium x cantabricus) hybrids have always done better both
under cover and in the open when planted rather deeper than normal and with
dampness present in the root zone during "dormancy."

When I lived in Stockton daffodils were one of the best performers in my
garden, flowering
well and increasing.

Sid DuBose, one of the more noted amateur daffodil hybridizers in this
country, has lived in the Stockton area for many years. At one time, he had a
considerable daffodil patch that resulted from his hybridizing efforts.

I always attributed lack of bloom to the lack of sun.

Daffodils want full sun for best results but will grow with variable amounts
of shade. Blooming falls off, of course, with decreasing sunlight. Often,
one will get blooms only every other year. If a bulb has been parasitized by
the large bulb fly, there will often sprout small pieces of the secondary
meristem the following spring that will eventually bloom again.

My records show Narcissus cantabricus blooming in October, what he called
Narcissus
bulbocodium monophyllus (which Dave tells me might best be called N.
cantabricus instead since it has white flowers) blooming December and January, N.
romieuxii blooming in December and January, and N. romieuxii var. zaianicus
still blooming from a January start so I've had continuous bloom in one pot or
the other for a long time. I've not tried any of these in the ground, however.

I know of no bulbocodium species that blooms in the fall. cantabricus,
however, does, from late fall through the winter months. One of my favorites has
always been zaianicus forma lutescens with its frilly coronas and evanescent
lemon color. Because of the cool temps this time of the year, the flowers will
last for weeks protected from the weather.

One newer hybrid that I've grown for a couple of years now is Barwick's
'Gadget' (Inspector GADGET). Very floriferous and the most brilliant deep
golden-yellow! Well worth seeking out as it has been a good doer and bloomer covering
its leaves with a mass of flowers in late winter.

Many (if not most) of these species really don't require weather that is that
cold. Temps in the forties/high thirties for most of the winter months
should suffice when the soil should be kept quite damp, particularly when the
leaves appear.

I have long been of the opinion that all of the miniature hybrids (and those
species multiplied asexually) are infected with one, or more, of the viruses
which infect the genus Narcissus and is the basic reason so many of them can be
such indifferent growers for so many. The way out of this dilemma is to
obtain several of the species and make your own hybrids. It's a very rewarding
pastime and you'll be pleased with the results.

Dave Karnstedt