Daffodil Enthusiasts, Daffodil Types, General, Historics, Species, Standards

Trumpet Major

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Greetings to all!

I am trying to do a little history on a very common daffodil here in Gloucester, Virginia, that grows almost wild!  Natives like myself refer to it as Trumpet Major.   I always believe its official name was either Lent Lily or N. pseudonarcissus but the pictures on daffseek do not match.  The name Trumpet Major doesn’t come up on daffseek.  I was once told this was the flower Wordsworth wrote about in his famous poem about daffodils, is this true?   I appreciate any help.

Ceci

 

6 comments for “Trumpet Major”

  2. Hi Ceci,

    I am not sure if this will help, but when you enter ‘Trumpet Major‘ in DaffSeek.org it states it is a synonym of ‘Maximus‘. The entry for ‘Maximus’ lists seven synonyms and has some nice photos which you could compare to the Gloucester daffodils.

    Nancy

     

  3. Harold…

    Trumpet Major is the nickname of N pseudonarcisus 13y-y or the lent lily…. Daffnet confirms that N. pseudonarcisus and Lent Lily.  I saw Brent tonight and asked him.  He was clueless but thought perhaps the name came over with the English settlers.   Can anyone confirm this?  Is anyone from England reading this posts knows any daffodil history?

  4. Ceci, go to DaffLibrary and enter “Trumpet Major” and you will be amazed at what you find. The legend is that the English housewives tied the bulbs in their aprons and brought them with them to the New World. Also, I have long heard that this is the only daffodil native to the British Isles. We grow it here, too, but call it “Early Mississippi.”  Ian Tyler, who is historic-minded, could probably fill in some of the gaps.

    Loyce McKenzie

  5. Ceci, and alll, I have been following this thread since you’re first posting with interest and I’m glad you have sorted yourself out about our indigenous species

    Tenby daffodil (N. pseudonarcissus subspecies, synonym N. pseudonarcissus  obvallaris major 13Y-Y),  which is native to South Wales, As you can see the word Major appears in the botanical name of the Tenby Daffodil and I wondered if this is not a clue to the Trumpet Major riddle but think not,

    What goes against this is the location and numbers of this cultivar as it original area of growth is thought to be around the local are of Pembrokeshire, this would I think rule it out as your Trumpet Major. The question as weather this is a indiginus flower of the UK is by some still called to question as the original naturlised areas were around St David’s Cathedral  with associated monestry  and so thought that the bulbs were brought in by the monks! Great minds than mine will continue to work on that one for years to come.

    Lent Lilly -N. pseudonarcissu  13Y-Y

    I have studied old catalogues one of which I have from Cartwright & Goodwin 1908 in which it is not listed but in dafflibrary I found Trumpet Major listed in Hartland’s Original Little Book of Daffodils, 1885 as a deep deep yellow and is listed as a cultivar in its own right, the other also on sale!

    It also has references up to the 1960’s but I have not had the time to search that far as yet!

    But it will be interesting to see a Photo in spring!

    I’ll keep looking,

     

    Ian

  6. Hi Ian:

    Thanks for all your information.   Interesting that Loyce area of Mississippi calls it Early Mississippi… another name for Trumpet Major here is early Virginia….   I’ll take a photo of it next year and post it here for further study…  cb

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