A couple of fall bloomers for the Holidays

6 comments for “A couple of fall bloomers for the Holidays”

1. Hi, Larry, those are some gorgeous blooms and good photos! Were these in pots in your greenhouse or outdoors? NVC #1 was listed for sale as ‘Green With Envy’ with Breck’s this year. Of course, their photo’s color was pushed beyond belief as far as the green goes. I recognized it and the one they called ‘Emerald Kiss’ as NVC #4. I ordered each of these from Breck’s to plant and compare. Also, I was told that those 5 varieties we got from Dutch Grown should be called Lima NVC #1-5 instead of Leenan NVC #1-5, since Leenan got the bulbs from Manual Lima. Thanks for photographing them and posting!

    

2. Becky, the plants above are growing in pots outside, not in the greenhouse. Most of my fall and winter blooming daffodils are in pots outside but I cover them with a tarpaulin if the temperatures are in the teens or mid to low 20’s. Would be afraid to leave the pots unprotected as they can freeze through and through with no protection. Covered, the heat in the ground helps protect the pots. Of course my cold snaps are usually short lived, that probably would not work in a colder zone. I am in zone 7B. They are kept completely dry in the summer in a shady place, moved out and watered around Sept 15. They come to life very soon after watering the pots. Things like miniatus, viridiflorus, and Verdant Sparks have already finished blooming. I have some Lima’s Green Road in the ground in bloom now, in pots also. Have the Leenan #1 and 2 in the ground also. #1 is in bud now. # 2 is just breaking ground. It is strange that I have another Leenan #2 in a pot that is just coming up also . The Manual Lima # 2, I got from John Reed  above is already blooming. Don’t know what is going on there, am wondering now if they are the same cultivar. Will know for sure when my #2’s bloom.  Bob’s Mesa Verde does well here as well as some of my own viridiflorus type seedlings in the ground. Thanks for the information on the Leenan names, guess I need to change my labels.

    

    

3. 

   I examined the pollen of the five varieties from Leenen and found no fertile pollen or very low values for four plants. Only the plant number 5 in the picture has about 10 % pollen fertility. I think the varieties are crosses  of one or more fertile viridiflorus hybrids with standard daffodils with a red crown (NNNV). Therefore they should be more resistant to frost than the viridiflorus hybrids as for example Emerald Sea.

   Theo

4. Thanks Theo for information of pollen fertility of the 5 Leenan varieties. They do seem somewhat resistant to cold temperatures. The ones I have planted in the ground  have grown and bloomed ok so far. My USDA Zone is 7B (5 to 10 degrees F) although we have not had any thing below 7F in a long time. Temperatures of single digits and low teens would likely destroy foliage and blooms without some type of protection. I have covered some of the fall and blooming types with large pieces of carpet or tarpaulins in the past.

   On another note, Glad to hear Limas’s Green Road is doing ok for you and it will be in bloom soon. You gave a report about the fertility of Lima’s Green Road pollen some time ago and said it was partially fertile. I agree as I have set seed using it’s pollen. I have not been able to set seed on LGR as a pod parent. Have you tried it as a pod parent and set seed on it. Thanks,

   Larry

5. Larry, I harvested some seed grains from crosses of Lima’s Green Road x N. cyclamineus and x N. hedraeanthus. Harold published a photo of a nice seedling ‘ of LGR x N. viridiflorus’ within the facebook group ‘Narcissus’ in November.

   Theo

6. Thanks Theo for the reply of your success on your and Harold’s Lima’s Green Crosses. Apparently the pollen I have used in the past was not viable. Guess I need to keep trying. I will try to find the photo of Harold’s seedling on Facebook. Thanks again,

   Larry

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