Narcissus elegans

£19.50

Flowering sized bulbs

Despatched September-November

Out of stock

You must register to use the waitlist feature. Please login or create an account

Description

Ice-white flowers which have a shallow, entire and incurving corona (cup) rather than a true trumpet . This corona starts out as olive-green when the buds first open but then it rapidly turns to, and stays, a rich orange. The cup is deeper in shade and depth of any of the autumn species and, importantly for diagnostics, it is entire, rather than being made of separate individual, or even fused, components (illustrated). The whole flower is lightly and very pleasantly scented. The plant itself is robust and, with time and maturity, is capable of making the largest bulbs of any of the autumn-flowering daffodils.  The leaves are also broader than any of the other autumnal daffodils and they are glaucous and often channelled, both these leaves and the stems become much larger than any of the species with which it has been confused. Stems easily reaching 25-35cm tall can regularly hold 7-9 flowers in a cluster at the top and exceptionally 17 have been recorded.

There really is no reason to confuse this species with any of the other autumn species, such as deficiens, serotinus or obsoletus as it is so terribly distinct. I am afraid that attempts to suggest that this is the same species as N. serotinus are fundamentally wrong whilst playing botanical musical chairs with alternative names, though perhaps fashionable, is not for one moment sensible, nor helpful.

This is easy to grow but it needs a little extra skill to flower it well. It is most certainly NOT a plant for the outside garden in the UK, ever. It needs pot cultivation under alpine glass or a bulb frame. I find that the trick is to keep it reasonably hot and dry through the peak of summer (but just short of a harsh “bake”) until late August or very early September then deluge it with tepid, dilute liquid feed. Don’t then water again until it is almost dry, perhaps 7-10 days later then repeat this 2 or even 3 times to start flowering and growth. Our experience is that N. elegans flowers some weeks ahead of any of its botanically confused cousins and indeed it is starting to ripen its seed here as the others are only just starting to flower.

It is well worth a bit of trouble to get this Autumn-flowering plant blooming well, as it is rather lovely.

Seed-raised from stock traceable to the very westernmost localities for this species, close to Villaneuva de Cauches in s. Spain.

Narcissus elegans
Narcissus elegans