Description
This plant, raised from an original wild collection ex. Mike Salmon & M. Fillan under the number SF.126/1 which Mike Salmon (the “S“) records as coming from Tizi ait Ouirra in Morocco. This is now shown as Tizi n’ ait Ouira on current maps and is a pass at 1,472m altitude, in an area covered by snow in winter. Mike listed it in his Monocot Nursery listing (1993-94) annotated with “a superior Julia Jane“. The slash 1, appears to be important as SF.126 (with no slash) is listed as N. romieuxii
Envisage a lovely, large-flowered and flat-faced, virtually white form of albidus (which is usually cream or primrose, despite its Latin name) as Mum, with the pollen parent being a large-flowered, primrose form of romieuxii also with widely flaring flowers. The resultant hybrid grex is surprisingly uniform, looking almost clonal with just one or two deviant forms. All have large and widely flared, outward to slightly up-facing trumpets of good, primrose yellow, with conical tubes of slightly darker yellow and green spathes at the base of the tube. The golden stamens are exserted, the whitish-yellow style even more so.
The flowers face more or less sideways and upwards and they open widely, showing very well and making a superb display which starts in January (under alpine glass) and continues until well into March. Outside (in a well drained soil or compost, in a sunny site) they are just a few weeks later.
A lovely cultivated hoop petticoat from north African parentage, hardy here in case you are concerned but excellent in a pot, which is how we grow and appreciate them in the earliest days of spring.
First introduced to our lists February 2021
