Narcissus April to June 2009

[Gerdk]

Lesley, David
Like your obese daffs - it seems they are a little fatter than those in nature!

Gerd

It's probably a matter of whom they live with Gerd. Well I'm not speaking for David's of course.

Lesley,
In that particular case my plant is much too small   

Gerd

[Tony Willis]

Armin and Gerd

very nice pictures from the wild.

My last one to flower I think for this year Narcissus poeticus from Greece

[Anthony Darby]

One of my favourite dwarf hybrids: Narcissus 'Bilbo'.

[Armin]

Armin and Gerd

very nice pictures from the wild.

My last one to flower I think for this year Narcissus poeticus from Greece

Tony,
lovely - one of my favourites.
Mine, from garden center, are just opening, too.
I saw in the 90th. a poeticus meadow with thousands of poeticus flowers in the Swiss near Montreux sur Lausanne - an unforgetable impression!

[fermi de Sousa]

One of my favourite dwarf hybrids: Narcissus 'Bilbo'.

Nice to see, Anthony, as it's one of the "new" ones I got this year - it may be awhile before my single bulb gets to be as nice as the clump you have there.
cheers
fermi

[Lvandelft]

When visiting the Connoisseur Collection with another Forumist, we picked some look-alikes of Narcissus Bilbo.
Is there anyone who can say which one is Bilbo?

[Maggi Young]

Flowers are looking as beautiful as ever chez Monsiuer Le Connoisseur, I see 

I think Bilbo is on the right of the photo and that one of the others, perhaps the left, is  Brian Duncan's "daughter" KayDee 

[Lvandelft]

Maggi, it seems you are the only person who has the guts to try.
I must say that I am a little disappointed that the other Narcissus specialists in the Forum
keep quiet.
But you are really invincible!

I have another picture where somebody is looking a bit critical at the flowers

From left Little Princess, Betsy MacDonald and Bilbo

[Maggi Young]

Oh, Armin came to visit you, how nice!


Yes, I thought that someone would surely make their guesses.....
I would have been wrong about the other flowers though.... I would have guessed that they might be other 6W-P crosses from Brian Duncan.... so I would have suggested, if not KayDee, then Diane or Delta Wings...

I must study the breeding of these two,Little Princess and  Betsy MacDonald now.... I like to learn these things, even if I soon forget!

[mark smyth]

From those photos I would say the Narcissus world has the potential to be as mixed up as the Galanthus world

[Lvandelft]

Well, Armin could not hold more than three at once, because it was very windy.
Otherwise we would have shown at least 10 equal ones, which were easy to find there...

[Maggi Young]

Mark, I think many plants have these similar puzzles.... look at Pleione, for example! 

Luit, I think you've been cheating  ... I find that Little Princess is a 2-W-P not a 6 W-P ..... a different section..... not that they all look the same anyway!!

[Lvandelft]

Maggi, me cheating???
I admit that I am too old to remember all these W-P's. But when we were in the field, so many Narcissus
were looking almost the same.
I hope Armin will confirm this.
He saw this the first time and was rather confused 

[Maggi Young]

Oh, Luit, I am only teasing, of course 

There are so many plants in all genera  with different names that are too similar .......it makes my head spin to try to remember them.   Even the purple-violet rhododendrons, for instance......

[Armin]

Hi Maggi,

I'm confirming everything Luit was writing.
Amazing huge number of similar looking daffodils.  Got a bit lost in confusion with all the cultivar names.

The visit to the tulip and narcissi land I'll never forget. It was very impressive to see all the huge fields with millions of bulbs in flower and the way of professional cultivation.

Against all prejudices of virus careing bulbs from Holland - I have seen much care during flowering i.e. visible inspections in the tulip fields. Each abnormal looking tulip (leaves/color) has been removed and disposed without any hesitance to keep varities in the fields clean and healthy.

One insight I got. The size of almost every tulip/narcis cultivar in the fields exceeded the size those of my own garden. This was a bit demotivating. But: It must be the combination of the coast climate, the sandy soil, the knowledge/experience and care of breeders which makes Holland so suitable for bulb mass growing. Holland's bulb breeders are better then their bad name.

As a consequence I have to improve the conditions in my garden if I want to be able to obtain comparable results in the future.
I got many ideas...