23-12-2003, 10:32 PM
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Early Pearl
In article ,
(paghat) writes:
(Zemedelec) wrote:
This cultivar of narcissus came with my house--one of the few flowering
plants
there--and, as often, put in an early appearance a few days ago. Last
spring
it had worked itself into such a huge clump that it barely flowered, and I
had
one of those lightbulb moments, "It's gotta be divided. Free naturalized
narcissi all over the front patch." So I dug up a baseball-size knot of
bulbs,
separated them, replanted, and as predicted they're raising their
cream-and-saltless-butter heads all over.
zemedelec
They sound lovely, Leslie
Paghat wrote
The earliest blooming Narcissus I have is called "Chinese Sacred Lily"
which doesn't know what winter is, so puts up fat narcissus-grass in
autumn & is very leafy in December -- leave fat & flat like butterknives
-- but it won't bloom until late January or early February.
Oh, indeed, Pag. I love the Chinese Sacred Lily or China Lily, My
grandmother had dozens of them in Long Beach, SoCal. THis is
always an early one here in the North Central Valley. I have one in
bloom now. I just picked the first blooming stem and there are 6-7 more
about ready. This one alwyas blooms in December. It is wedged in
between the walk and the raised bed in the veg garden. I think that
a gopher moved it there, cause I didn't plant it there!
I've other N.
tazetta varieties that do seem to detect we have winters here & so wait to
appear. I don't think any will bloom in December here (zone 8), not
outdoors that is.
There is a house down the street with a 100 foot row of them, always
blooming at Christmas time. Other early ones are Earlicheer and
Soleil d'Or. Also I think it is Pipit that is poking its little green ears up
now.
Paperwhites & such narcissi as are sold for "forcing"
will bloom very early if planted out in the garden,
I haven't seen any paperwhites yet, but in a couple of weeks, maybe.
We have had temps down to about 30, none in the 20s yet. Lots of rain,
and not much sunshine.I'm kind of a borderline zone 8. It has not been
in the twenties much for the last four or five years, though.
Emilie
NorCal
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