Narcissus vs. Daffodils
Mary Sue Ittner (Sun, 21 Mar 2004 22:59:32 PST)

Dear All,

I was looking over the favorite orange flowered bulb posts to try to
summarize something for the TOW wiki page and realized I have been wanting
to ask this question for some time. I have noticed that the people on this
list whose first love or at least main interest seems to be Narcissus and
who are therefore considered by me to be the "experts", usually refer to
these plants as Daffodils. This seems to be the preferred name in fact. I
take it this has to do with the classification scheme which describes many
of the different groups as daffodils. And it is the American Daffodil
Society, not the American Narcissus Society. When I am summarizing a list I
am using botanical names to be consistent. When I am listing something like
Ambergate or putting a picture of something named on the wiki how is this
written? Can some of you explain the usage to me and when Narcissus is
used and when Daffodil? Is this an example where gardeners are standing up
for their right to use the name they wish?

Thanks in advance for explaining this to me.

Mary Sue