Narcissus Varieties - Fall Planting 07

Updated: October 28, 2007

 

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Narcissus poeticus actaea
Flickr Photo Uploaded on 22 May 2006
By dseang

While pondering good things to write, I've begun the process forcing my Narcissus bulbs. 

"The American Daffodil Society divides all Narcissus into 13 Horticultural Divisions"^[i] and I (a member) follow their lead. 

Though in truth, the 13 Divisions look more like 12 to me: the 13^th rubric seems to denote wild variants of the previous 12.  In other words, a particular wild Jonquilla might fall into Division 13 whereas Jonquillas are, in and of themselves, Division 7.  Whatever.

Nomenclature within genus Narcissus is a bit tricky - (take a look at this interesting document: Botanical names in the genus Narcissus (Reprinted from The International Daffodil Register 1998 (Updated 12 September 2006)) - so I'll use the accepted "DIV-COLOR-COLOR" form here (check it out).

As of this writing, I have several varieties chilling:

DIVISION	SPECIMEN
1 Trumpet Daffodil	Narcissus 'Dutch Master' 1-Y-Y Narcissus 'Mount Hood' 1-W-W Narcissus 'Pop's Legacy' 1-W-Y † Narcissus 'Shimna' 1-W-Y †
2 Large-cupped Daffodil	Narcissus 'Kissproof' 2-Y-O Narcissus 'Carlton' 2-Y-Y Narcissus 'Auspicious' 2-O-O † Narcissus 'Golden Sheen' 2-Y-Y † Narcissus 'Desert Rose' 2-W-P † Narcissus 'Fly Half' 2-Y-R † Narcissus 'Bandit' 2-W-YYO † Narcissus 'Ashland' 2-W-Y †
3 Small-cupped Daffodil	Narcissus 'Barrett Browning' 3-WWY-O Narcissus 'Green Pearl' 3-W-GWW Narcissus 'Fond Memory' 3-W-WWO † Narcissus 'Lancaster' 3-W-GYO †
4 Double Daffodil	Narcissus 'Golden Ducat' 4-Y-Y Narcissus 'White Medal' 4-W-W
5 Triandrus Daffodil	Narcissus 'Petrel' 5-W-W Narcissus 'Lemon Drops' 5-Y-Y
6 Cyclamineus Narcissus	Narcissus 'Jetfire' 6-Y-O Narcissus  'Tête-à-tête' 12-Y-Y   *
7 Jonquilla Narcissus	Narcissus (Jonquilla) 'Bell Song' 7-W-P Narcissus (Jonquilla) 'Pipit' (Miniature) 7-WWY-W Narcissus (Jonquilla) 'Baby Moon' (Miniature) 7-Y-Y Narcissus (Jonquilla) 'Veery' 7-Y-Y † Narcissus (Jonquilla) (Unnamed Nell?) 7-Y-Y †
8 Tazetta Narcissus	Narcissus 'Inbal' (Paperwhite) 8-W-W Narcissus 'Hoopoe' 8-Y-O †
9 Poet's Daffodil	Narcissus (Poeticus) 'Actaea' 9-W-YYR
10 Bulbocodium Hybrid	Narcissus 'Golden Bells' 10-Y-Y
11 Split-Cupped Daffodils	11a - Narcissus 'Orangery' (collar) 11a-W-OOY 11a - Narcissus 'Trilune' (collar) 11a-W-Y 11b - (papillon) - ?
12 Miscellaneous Daffodils	Narcissus  'Tête-à-tête' 12-Y-Y   * Narcissus 'Demitasse' 12-W-Y † Consists of daffodils not classifiable by the first 11 divisions
13 Species, Wild Variants, and Wild Hybrids	Narcissus odorus Linnaeus (campernelli) 13-Y-Y

^* It seems a bit unclear where Tête-à-tête belongs (Div 6 or Div 12).  I'm rolling with the American Daffodil Society on this one (Division 12).

^† From the Midwest Daffodil Society bulb "swap" (Oct 28, 2007).   Many of these are "young" bulbs.

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I like to force flowers so that I might have some fun while the world is dead, but I do not force Hyacinthus or Tulipa.  I limit my activities to Narcissus.

Why?

Forcing typically kills the Hyacinth and Tulip bulb, where it typically does not kill the Narcissus.  I don't typically like to intentionally kill plants for my amusement, as I get enough of that sort of thing quite unintentionally. 

The logical corollary of this statement is obviously that anyone who does force hyacinth or tulip bulbs is clearly an agent of Satan... because that's the world we live in, no?  It couldn't possibly be that I'm expressing a personal preference without judgment.  The lunatics run the asylum I'm afraid.

Hi ho.

Narcissus triandrus
Flickr Photo Uploaded on 31 March 2005
By jiom

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Sources

^[i] From Wikipedia: Narcissus