Description
Narcissus cantabricus petunioides was described by John Blanchard, in his epic 1990 book, as “the most beautiful of all the hoop petticoats” and much of the history of this plant entwines around John and his father Don. The original plant called petunioides was received by Don Blanchard in the 1930’s from the firm of Van Tubergen, in the Netherlands as a part of a larger batch. The petunioides name was finally described botanically by Abílio Fernandes (Kew Bulletin Vol. 12, No. 3 , pp. 373-385 (1957)), from this same original material grown by Don Blanchard. It is thought to have originated from plants found at high altitude in the Atlas Mountains of both Algeria and Morocco.
The original 1930’s plant has now been taken through many generations in cultivation. Jim Archibald recorded selfed-seed producing only white seedlings, but that these are not all of the petunioid form. Only those with the distinct, flat, round coronas of the parent plant are entitled to the name.
Some years ago, (2005) John Walker of Lancashire obtained seed of two forms of petunioides from the late Jim Archibald. One lot of seed in turn originated from Mike Salmon at Monocot Nursery from plants which Mike had found in Morocco. The other batch was the original 1930s stock from John Blanchard. Jim and John were near-neighbours and friends in Dorset. Upon flowering the blooms of the two stocks proved to be very subtly different from each other. All were white as expected and previously reported. Also as expected, not all were petunioid in form.
John says that the flowers of these original petunioides were sporadic and sometimes the growth was weak though the solitary, narrow leaves were often plentiful. In search of ever better forms he made several crosses between different plants .
The plants offered in this stock result from crossing the original, shy-flowering, petunioides with a nice form of yellow bulbocodium. The grex is offered but the cross is quite consistent producing what are probably the largest flowers within the two sections. Certainly they are the largest hoop petticoat flowers that I know of. They are not flat-faced (unlike the {true} Narcissus romieuxii Julia Jane), but they are of very good size. They are downwards pointing at first, becoming more erect as the flowers age. They are of a deeper shade and colouring than cantabricus, but only slightly paler than bulbocodium . In addition you have the vigour resulting from the crossing of two different species. We have not selected or culled the stock further in any way and our illustration is typical of much of this stock.
First offered in our lists July 2023
