Narcissus bulbocodium in Northern gardens
Jane McGary (Thu, 07 Nov 2013 10:45:32 PST)

An important thing to know about Narcissus bulbocodium is that it has
a number of different populations, some of which are distinguished as
subspecies or varieties. According to John Blanchard's useful book
"Narcissus: A Guide to Wild Daffodils," these different populations
grow in distinctly different habitats. The type, for instance
"grow[s] in short turf, often very wet, at lower levels, but high on
the Serra da Estrela they are in very gritty acid, almost grassless
soil." Var. nivalis is a plant of alpine meadows where it would
experience frost and snowmelt. Var. conspicuus of western Europe
"prefer[s] a damp acid soil." Var. pallidus is from the Atlas
Mountains and (I find) tolerates more summer drying. Var. graellsii
from Spain "always seems to grow on level turf on acid soil, often
dryish but sometimes quite wet." N. obesus, or subsp. obesus, is said
to be more lime-tolerant, but I have found it one of the best for
growing outside in the Pacific Northwest; mine are a clone originally
sent to the PNW from England in the 1960s.

I don't know what 'Golden Bells' may be, but I suppose it's from the
western European types like var. conspicuus. It is more likely than
the others to produce more than one flower per stem, and it has erect
foliage. It persisted in a warm, dry but irrigated spot in my former
garden for many years. I did not put it with the bulb collection
because I was afraid of introducing virus into my seed-grown narcissi.

It is interesting to grow a wide range of these subspecies,
varieties, or populations because you get a long period of bloom:
nivalis and praecox come first, then pallidus, and later obesus and
finally graellsii. Narcissus are very easy to grow from seed and
these little ones can flower the third year. Most of mine came from
the Archibalds' seed lists and many of those were collections by Blanchard.

I think most of them can stand plenty of water during their growing
season as long as the soil is well drained.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

At 06:00 PM 11/6/2013, you wrote: