Description
A lovely jonquil section species from the Atlas mountains of North Africa. Despite its southerly provenance it is has been cold-hardy with me, in the past, in raised beds of well-drained, sandy and gravelly loam. In the wild its habitat certainly gets frost and snow in winter. It does however appreciate a warmer, drier summer rest than it probably gets outside in the UK and we do now grow it under alpine glass with good results.
From March onwards you can expect solitary golden fragrant stars each 3.5 cm across, with a characteristically spreading, deeply cleft corona and slightly reflexing petals. Although I have written that the corona is short, in fact it is elongated but is folded back, so that it protrudes less from the disc of the petals. Typically the corona is also a slightly darker shade than the petals, which you can see in our illustration.
Related to Narcissus rupicola but with larger flowers on slightly taller stems and with greenish foliage (rather than the greyish foliage of rupicola). The foliage of marvieri grows upwards more rather than being spreading. When grown well it is the more vigorous of the two.
A seldom-offered rarity this is a collector’s gem and one which seems to have always been one of the rarer species in cultivation. Raised from Jim Archibald seed JJA.705.600 Jim described this as “The yellow race endemic to Morocco” and further added that it was “Not easy in our experience. Needs careful watering & appreciates a warmer, drier rest in summer.”
