Description
A rare and little-known species from Sardinia with pale to lemon yellow, sweetly-scented flowers with a darker yellow cup and upright, glaucous, grey-blue leaves.
It has been messed about, taxonomically, since its christening in 1830. It is undoubtedly close to N. tazetta and so you might also see it as N. tazetta subsp aureus (as in Flora Europaea). The name N. bertolonii primulinus pops up as well sometimes. There are other synonyms, so that you may also see the species quoted as algerica, algirus, aureus, chrysanthus, flaveolus, latifolia, multiflorus, primulinus, solaria, xanthea, and xantheus. This one has been keeping taxonomic botanists in employment since 1831 when the first synonym appeared.
It is an easy grower here, loving a Mediterranean cycle with a dry summer rest. A well drained loam in a very sunny site is all it needs, though it can also be potted or bedded out under cold glass, as we grow it.
These are propagated from a collection made many years ago by Dr. Tom Norman. They are the very plants discussed by John Blanchard in his excellent book Narcissus. Jim and Jenny Archibald offered seed of this, again from Tom Norman’s collection under their population number JJA.700.200 which is this exact stock and we have now added this number to our name.
Introduced to our lists in June 2015
