Hello Jim, Val and everyone else. Jim, I like your tip and indeed, planting a 100 of the same variety makes it so much more affordable, easy to plant and of course an impact that is hard not to become an addict afterwards. If you are looking for a solid red cup, take a look at Rose Sheen. It is weather resistant and most importantly, the corona does not fade away with time. When it has good nutrients, it gets a red cast in the periant. As for bulbocodiums, have you tried Oxford Gold? It is late, slighlty bigger than the most, miltiplies well and seems to grow well for me both in sunny locations as well as in more shadier ones. Harold has a great selection and a lot of expertise, I hope to meet him one day. By the way, Mount Hood is one of my favorites. As I child, I had no idea that tazettas exist, until I saw Grand Solei d’Or. Before this, my favorites were usually in division 1, the thmpets. Mount Hood used to grow all over my grandparents’ house, along with Actaea. Ah, good memories! Val, you mean you live in zone 8a? I am in marginal 7b, more like 8a in most of the years (this year was an exception). I have tried paperwhites outside like you and it worked very well, especially next to our house. What performes really well are some tazettas from Bill the Bulb Baron, may he rest in peace. Grand Solei d’Or does really well and last winter it started to bloom by the end of January (it went barely down to -4 on occasional nights). It is one of my favorites. Hopefully, I will grow First Stanza from Lawrence Trevanion sometimes in the future. Greetings from Berlin, Vlad On Fri 23. Apr 2021 at 05:43 James Waddick via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Dear Jane and all, > > Unlike you I am definitely a Narcissus lover, but I grow all mine > out doors and in the ground near Kansas City. > > I have maybe 75 different varieties or probably more. Because I > have the room I have planted between 10 and 300 of each. Most are > around10-15, but a number are 100 and more. I grow those commercial kinds > mostly because I can’t grow many species. My only species is N. obvallaris > which self sows lightly. For years I grew those sweet bulbicodium hybrids > like ‘Kholmes’ and other of the Conan Doyle names. I grew the impossible N. > polybulbos for years too, but keeping narcissus in pots was too much. I > cannot leave any bulbs in pots outdoors due to extreme winter cold. So I > miss on some of my favs. > > I do grow a wide variety of named hybrids from the obvious large > and small cups to the multi-flowered, spit corollas, miniatures, poeticus > and more. In the front of the house I planted about 300 bulbs of ’Suzy’ > because I got a good price and now there’s 300 clumps and it is a late > bloomer to extend the season. I have no idea how many ‘Mt Hood’ I grow, but > it seems to be hundreds all around t he house. One of my favs is ‘Pink > Charm’ Maybe a couple hundred. I sometimes grow a few in pots. This year > about 50 ‘Yellow River’ with huge brilliant yellow flowers. Those bulbs > will end up in the garden by. fall. > > I also enjoy some special bulbs I got from Steve Vinisky of Cherry > Creek Daffodils and some choice bulbs from Harold Koopwitz, the late Sid > Dubose and Dave Niswonger. Friends share and trade others. If money were > no object I could easily buy dozens more and I’d love to be able to obtain > some reliably hardy ‘Hoop Petticoat’ types and deep red cups. > > The range of hardy daffodils is quite amazing and well beyond the > few large cups you see in most garden centers and box stores, but it takes > some searching to get some of these. Although I prefer to walk through the > garden checking flowers and labels and comparing varieties, I do bring cut > mixed bouquets into the house mostly for the variety and fragrance. > > I certainly urge beginners to take advantage of the relative > bargain of buying 100 bulbs of 1 variety. The price drops a lot. Buy 100 of > each variety, one or 2 per year and it doesn’t take long to surround > yourself with these very reliable bulbs. I’ve been gripping them here for > almost 30 years. We get deer in the garden almost daily and nightly and > they do not disturb the flowers or foliage, gophers, voles, and moles do > not eat the bulbs and we do not have the narcissus fly because of too > extreme temperatures. We are shocked when driving around the neighborhood > in spring that there are so very few homes with even a single small clump > of some old classic in bloom and no variety or number. > > I can’t begin to make an accurate guess as to how many narcissus > I grow, but I suspect there are thousands of individual bulbs that bloom in > succession over many weeks in the spring. Yes I am addict. > > Best Jim W. > > > > > On Apr 22, 2021, at 12:53 PM, Jane McGary via pbs < > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > > > > Like Carlos, I am interested mostly in wild taxa and their natural > hybrids. I grow Narcissus from wild-collected seed whenever I can get it. > Some in my collection were sown in the 1990s. I am sometimes at a loss to > know how to name them, owing to the fact that there are competing sets of > nomenclature, with the usual divide between "lumpers" and "splitters," as > well as disagreement on the affinities among different wild populations. I > just keep the identifications under which I got the seed, unless I can > clearly tell that it's wrong by all accounts. > > > > I live in the maritime Pacific Northwest in the Portland, Oregon, area, > which is very good for growing almost all kinds of Narcissus in the open > garden. Only the fall- and midwinter-flowering ones have to be kept under > cover. It's cold enough in the winter to suit species from higher > elevations, and dry enough in summer to please Mediterranean plants in > general. I've moved some of the larger, more prolific species into the > garden in separate areas. We've just had a terrible hot, dry week or so, > and the flowers have all suffered, but there are still some nice groups of > Narcissus carrying on. Narcissus poeticus is one of the later species. > There are good groups of Narcissus jonquilla and species related to it, > such as N. cordubensis and N. fernandesii, and I confess I can't really > tell them apart except perhaps on the basis of the foliage. In a raised bed > and a bulb lawn, the small species N. rupicola and N. calcicola flourish. > N. triandrus grows in several sites but I think it's best on a cool rock > garden. > > > > I also have a lot of commercial hybrid daffodils in a strip along the > roadside. They make a useful display and source of cutflowers, and my > theory is that they will decoy the bulb fly away from the precious species. > I haven't seen any signs of virus in these purchased bulbs, but in a former > garden I once received some bulbs of 'Quail' that were clearly > virus-infected. > > > > Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA > > > > > > On 4/22/2021 5:25 AM, Carlos Jiménez via pbs wrote: > >> Hi, me. Mostly interested on wild taxa and hybrids. > >> > >> Carlos > >> > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>