Smaller Narcissus - PBS and Alpine Topic of the Week
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 12 Feb 2004 07:39:33 PST)

Dear All,

I really enjoyed reading both introductions for this ten day topic. I
expected there would be a lot of contributions since I know there are many
members of this list who grow a lot of Narcissus. It is still early however.

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.

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?

Nancy told us about the smaller Narcissus species that do well in her
Northern California garden. Would some of the rest of you tell us what
kinds of Narcissus you can grow in your different areas of the world? What
does well for her has done well for me which is not surprising, but I wish
I had known sooner what to try.

I was surprised recently when the question of what bulbs to grow in
California's central valley that no one suggested Narcissus. When I lived
in Stockton they were one of the best performers in my garden, flowering
well and increasing. I grew hybrids that I ordered from those shiny
catalogs at that point in my life. As some one mentioned, Daffodil Hill in
the California foothills always had an amazing display that people would
drive great distances to see every spring.

In my coastal garden most of the Narcissus I dug and brought with me have
gone to heaven or where ever they go when they depart. I never knew about
the Narcissus bulb fly before some of you told us about it so perhaps they
got eaten instead. I always attributed it to the lack of sun. Speaking of
the Narcissus bulb fly, I was asked to put information on the wiki about it
to go with Arnold's pictures so I came up with information posted on this
list mostly and Dave Karnstedt has improved what I started.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

I've been able to keep going and blooming a number of bulbs in containers
that Bill Dijk originally sent to the IBS BX and I turned around. The ones
that have been successful are winter bloomers which is just fine with me
since they don't have a lot of competition at that time in the garden and
they bloom a long time and provide a lift between rainy periods. 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 could provide acid sandy soil, but summer baking is questionable. What
actually does summer baking mean? Obviously the ones I mentioned have done
fine with being moved to the shade and kept dry in a pot during summer, but
not certainly not hot.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers