Narcissus March 2009 -

[David Nicholson]

....... and I lost my one and only bulb of N. calcicola bought last year.

[Gerdk]

from Bob and Rannveig Wallis' last catalogue:-

"RRW8836-Narcissus bulbocodium Oukaimedon, High Atlas 2800m. Another of the spectacular Moroccan bulbocodiums with large flaring lemon yellow trumpets"

Thank you for clarification David! RRW = Robert & Rannveig Wallis and Bob = Robert (I got it - slowly, slowly)

Gerd

[Gerry Webster]

I must have done something wrong, because after one season I lost all my Narcissus calcicola.

I have exactly the same problem Anthony - purchased from MB and planted in 2007 - flowered ok in 2008 - no sign of them in 2009...
And the same goes for N. rupicola 
[/quote]

....... and I lost my one and only bulb of N. calcicola bought last year.

Interesting. I bought two bulbs of the Dutch N. calcicola cultivar 'Idol last year. Only one has appeared this year & that looks as though it may be virused. On the other hand, I have a potful of N.calcicola seedlings (from Mike Salmon seed) which reappears year after year. Unfortunately I cannot persuade them to flower.

[Michael J Campbell]

I ordered over 20 different Narcissus from MB in 2007, all flowered last spring but only two have appeared this year.

[derekb]

2 Narcissus from me,
Narcissus calcicola,
Narcissus bulbocodium RRW88-36

I must have done something wrong, because after one season I lost all my Narcissus calcicola.

Anthony The calcicola bulbs came from Tony Good 4 years ago and I have had no problems, now I will probably loose them. Derek 

[annew]

Who is MB? I lost N calcicola 'Idol' after one season as well (twice!). I have some of the wild form kindly sent to me by Dominique flowering very prettily now. It will be interesting to see if these fare better.

[Gerry Webster]

Miniature Bulbs. My plants of 'Idol' did not come from them. I have mostly bought  narcissus species from them in the past & all these - so far - have reappeared in subsequent years. However, the virus in N. 'Little Soldier' is so severe it can be spotted at a hundred paces.

Addition: I wonder if these disappearing plants are microprops? I remember many people found micropropagated frits difficult or impossible to establish when they first arrived on the scene.

[Alessandro.marinello]

new flower :)Narcissus scaberulus (Portugal)

[Lesley Cox]

I ordered over 20 different Narcissus from MB in 2007, all flowered last spring but only two have appeared this year.

Heavens, that's not a good return Michael.

Once when I lost almost everything from a large Narcissus order, I had the cynical thought that the nusery had sprayed them with something nasty in order that they WOULDN'T come up again, so that I would reorder. In fact I did reorder most and found almost all were already infected with narcissus fly grubs by the time I received them.

[tonyg]

Anthony The calcicola bulbs came from Tony Goode 4 years ago and I have had no problems, now I will probably loose them. Derek 

Glad to know they are doing OK!
Mine were originally from AGS seed.  The secret to keeping healthy stocks of most of the species bulbs is to raise some new ones from seed from time to time.   They are susceptible to some viruses, I lost my original N calcicola that way (helped along by the fly ).  Fortunately they usually make fat pods full of good seed - I may be asking you to send me some as I cannot recall if I still have it   (too dark to check now!)
MB = Miniature Bulbs a UK based bulb seller.  Well known for their range of narcissus which seem to have serious health issues right now

[Lvandelft]

I showed a good grown pot of Narc. calcicola 'Idol' this week in Weekly Lisse Flower Show.
Did not realise it would be difficult to keep??

[Maggi Young]

Here is the N. 'Idol' from the Lisse show.... photo by Luit.....

[Anthony Darby]

new flower :)Narcissus scaberulus (Portugal)

This is another one that came wrongly identified (not from MB), and is a lovely wee rupicola. I'll photograph it at the weekend. My other pot labelled scaberulus is just leaves, but I suspect it needs severe summer heat?

[Gerdk]

Narcissus romieuxii from Itzer, Morocco

-all from the same collection (received from a friend) - showing the variability

Gerd

[annew]

Here are a few new babies. Some are not beautiful, but are interesting (to me at any rate!)
First a real tiny one - mixed seedlings of rupicola x Fuco - each of the flowers would fit easily into a 2cm cube.
Second and third, one I like a lot - watieri x asturiensis, the flower is 2.5cm across - in essence a pale lemon Jim Lad.
Fourth, bulbocodium nivalis x triandrus, a curiosity.
Fifth, ostensibly the same cross, but resulting in a very peculiar little flower 1 cm at the mouth and facing straight up!