Description
This plant, once common in horticulture, is now an extreme rarity which is seldom seen nowadays. During the last century, massive numbers were taken from the restricted wild habitat and offered in chain-stores and garden centres. This gave the false impression that it was a cheap, easy species.
In fact it needs care and attention to raise from seed. This takes a minimum of 4 years of careful cultivation before even the first few flowers appear. It makes no offsets and so seed is the only route by which the tiny bulbs can be raised. This species will always be expensive as it is so slow to produce.
Dwarf growths and narrow, unobtrusive foliage with each bulb making a single cape bearing a solitary flower of intense yellow, with the petals completely folded back on themselves in the manner of a Cyclamen (hence the name of this daffodil) .
A moist, but very well-drained, sandy, leafy soil is best. Slightly acidic soils outside in the garden are better than either limey soils or pot cultivation. The pedigree of our stock is amazing; this species used to seed prolifically in a humus-rich, very sandy soil, under trees in Frank Waley’s wonderful garden ‘Wavertree’ at Sevenoaks in Kent and it is from Frank’s original gift to Michael Hoog that these have been propagated. Frank’s plants were, in turn, a gift from Muriel Tait and before that they came directly from Alfred Tait, who, with his botanising friend Mr Edwin Johnston, of Oporto, was the one credited with the re-discovery of this plant, in the wild, in 1885. Before this the species had been “missing” for over 250 years, after it was first figured by Pierre Vallet in 1608. These are thus about as authentic as can be, with a provenance dating all the way back to the re-discovery of the species.
These are perfect, sound, beautiful, nursery-raised bulbs in pristine condition but please be warned, this is naturally amongst the smallest of daffodil species with small bulbs.
