Here in central Massachusetts, one hor west of Boston in the snow belt of Worcester County, I too cannot grow N. cantabricus and related forms outside, but in the cold glass house, they have been quite easy for me. Narcissus watieri and N. rupicula won't bloom for me unless they are outside, and seem to do well in the raised stone bed along the western foundation of the greenhouse which acts as both an alpine bed and bulb bed. It is generally covered all winter with at least two feet of snow, since the snow slides off of the greenhouse roof every time it snows, and I think it keeps the ground from freezing deeply, if at all. In the greenhouse, I keep many pots of Narcissus species, mostly the clan and confusing relatives of N romieuxii, N. cantabricus (albidus, zaianicaus, etc). Most are either from seed from the various exchanges, or from shared lot from others. I first became interested after seeing Ian Youngs collection during a NARGS dinner, and later, he shared seeds with me and encouraged to to just 'jump in' because he said, "it's easy". For whatever reason, for me, it was. Then, thanks to nearby NARGS guru Roy Herold, who one summer called me up as asked if I would like to trade some bulbs since he was repotting his collection, I suddenly had a full collection. ( which he recently reminded me that I need to re-share back with him, since he lost some of his). Sharing is a good thing. I find these winter blooming species so rewarding, and easy, but of course, you need the right environment for them. My glass house is cold, 40-45 Degree F in the winter, and single glass, so it gets strong sunlight during the short days of winter, and I have high shelves, where the bulbs can spend the summer hot, dry and baking. They start blooming around Christmas with the N. cantabricus ssp. folioisus, and then many N. romieuxii species and sub species. I have so many, that I have to use Harold;s excel spreadsheet he gave me, to look up the numbers. To make matters worse, I am not as organized as he is, and I usually save seed, and then simply pot it fresh, quickly scribbling out a tag that says something like 'N. Romiuxii December 07 seed-mine. It doesn;t seem to make sense labeling it with more detail, since on warm days, my honey bees find their way in when the vents open, even if there is snow on the ground.. The fragrance must be too much, and they can't help themselves. They seem to bloom in three to four years for me, and with bulbs selling for nearly 10 - 20 US dollars each, a couple of seed pods yields a hundred seeds or so. One needs a full pot, for a decent display. Also, right now, I do have the green flowered autumn species N. viridiflora in bloom, which has never set seed for me, but which has divided nicely from 3 bulbs into 7 over the past two years. Matt Mattus Worcester, MA ZONE 5 On 11/16/08 7:33 AM, "J.E. Shields" <jshields@indy.net> wrote: > Hi all, > > Here in central Indiana, USDA cold zone 5, I've not had good luck with the > Narcissus cantabricus forms I've raised from seed. They do not survive at > all outdoors in the ground, and in the cool greenhouse they dwindle away, > almost never blooming. > > N. calcicola, N. rupicola, N. assoanus, and N. fernandesii have survived in > the raised bed rock garden for several years. Only N. calcicola and N. > fernandesii still survive, and only calcicola blooms now. None of these > did well in pots in the cool greenhouse! > > N. bulbocodium conspicuus and N. b. nivalis survive outdoors in the ground > in regular flower beds, but I think only conspicuus is still blooming each > spring. > > Jim Shields > in chilly, rainy central Indiana (USA) > > > > ************************************************* > Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. > P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ > Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA > Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/