Narcissus January- February 2009

[Tony Willis]

Narcissus longispathus originally from Cazorla

Pretty flower!
Do you grow this species outside? I lost all my plants in the garden peu à peu, I am not sure because of the cold or the narcissus fly liked them.

Gerd

Gerd in the greenhouse like evewything else.I think they are hardy because where I found them was above the snowline.I had my first narcissus fly this year in a phaedranassa.I had never seen one before.Lily beetles arrived two years ago.

[mark smyth]

You can bet that if an Amaryllid is expensive, choice or special the Narcissus fly will lay an egg of the leaves. They arent afraid to go in a green house. I killed some last year on my Nerine sarniensis

[annew]

That's a very nice hybrid, Mark, the reverse cross which I got is yellow.

[fermi de Sousa]

One from me for today because tomorrow there will be blue sky for me to take good photos of my Narcissus
'Candlepower' x asturiense

Mark,
that's a fine flower. Did you do the cross yourself? How high does it stand? Can you show a pic of the entire plant?
We're just getting ready to plant daffs over here!
cheers
fermi

[mark smyth]

It's a Brian Duncan cross. I hope he releases more for sale this year. It's less than 4 inches 10cm high. I'll measure it later

[Ian Y]

One from me for today because tomorrow there will be blue sky for me to take good photos of my Narcissus'Candlepower' x asturiense

Mark that is a fine form you have there.
We also got that cross from Brian last autumn and the reverse cross and both are yellow.

Narcissus 'Candlepower' x asturiense  is the front flower and Narcissus asturiense x 'Candlepower' at the back.
There are both nice and is little to choose between them as they are so similar.
It would be interesting to know what proportion of the seedlings are pale coloured like yours.

[mark smyth]

It fades to cream

[annew]

This is mine from Brian. Also a couple of new ones of mine, (rupicola marvieri x cyclamineus) and (rupicola watieri x cyclamineus). Sometimes you wait three years to find nothing appears to have happened - the white one is supposed to be a cross between N albidus SF110 and Cedric Morris. I think not!
The last pic shows Narcissus 'Wavertree' on the left and 'Bowles early Sulphur' on the right. Wavertree is about 3" and BES about 4-5" at present.

[mark smyth]

The weather forecast for today is wrong. No blue sky today but a nice grey one

[Sinchets]

Narcissus bulbocodium x romieuxii in the bulb frame today after removing 2' of snow 

[mark smyth]

Ian I going to Brian's in a couple of weeks and will have a rough count/survey

[David Nicholson]

I'll just get this one in before February turns into March. Narcissus 'February Gold' in the garden yesterday and roughly two weeks later than it was in 2008.

[Brian Duncan]

It would be interesting to know what proportion of the seedlings are pale coloured like yours.

Ian,
The batch is just starting to flower outside now - I'll try to do a count and let you know but I think more than half of them come yellow. I hope they have some hybrid vigour and stay better than many clones of the species N. asturiensis which I find are what John Blanchard calls 'dwindlers' - I think they are programmed to reproduce by seed rather than vegetatively. After seeding the bulb seems to think it has performed its life function and just gradually fades away to make room for it's offspring! I have not yet sorted how to add photos to messages - maybe as well as I might be cramming up the whole system!!
Brian

[Anthony Darby]

[I have not yet sorted how to add photos to messages - maybe as well as I might be cramming up the whole system!!
Brian

Brian, just click 'Additional Options' below the text window and 'Browse' as if adding an attachment to an email, ensuring the file is ~300kbts. For more (up to 10) click '(more attachments)'.

[Ian Y]

Thanks Brian,

I also find certain Narcissus species often dwindle so lets hope some of the more recent hybrids between some of the dwarf species have hybrid vigour.

I find the original N. mimicycla a bit of a struggle to keep some years I congratulate myself at building up a reasonable number or bulbs only to loose most of them the following.
A numbers of years ago I back crossed it onto N. cyclamineus and the offspring are increasing well so far.

Brian you must learn to post pictures we need to see your Narcissus they would greatly enhance these pages and could never clutter them up.