On 4/3/07 17:38, in article
, "Dave Hill"
wrote:

On 4 Mar, 16:57, "Trevor" wrote:
"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in
...



In message , Trevor
writes
I planted dozens of Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation in the autumn of
2005 around our village monument. They made a splendid show in Feb/March
2006. This year virtually 99% of them haven't come up. I dug up the bulbs
and an odd one has a pathetic green shoot of a few inches and that's it.
What could have gone wrong? Would it be a mistake to plant more in the
same
place?

Does the area get a lot of foot traffic? I was looking at the distribution
of bulbous plants in a local park recently, and I was wondering whether it
was restricted beyond the original boundaries by a combination of
trampling and soil compression.

I planted them at the same time along the foot of a Lonicera nitida hedge
a
few metres away , and they are flowering OK.

I'll try and get a picture, but the monument is raised on stone steps and
the bulbs were at the base, literally inches from it and too close for
anyone to regularly walk over.

I just wonder if it could be Narcissus bulb flies, I know that they
mostly result in "Blind" bulbs, but they can also result in a loss of
the bulbs, see http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/Foliage/ent...state/fly4.htm
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries

We're told that the daffs under our big Cedar tree have some disease, the
name of which I can never remember. But it results in blind daffs every
year, where we should have a glory of gold. The leaves come up perfectly
healthily but start to die back from the tips almost immediately, so the
bulbs get no nourishment to produce flowers (I assume). I know Ray feeds
them with something or other but don't remember the name now, so I'll ask
him. This year we have a very few more flowers but not many. I've often
wondered if the Cedar itself has something to do with it because it's huge
and widespread and these are planted all around its roots. However,
cyclamen, snowdrops and cyclamen coum come up with no trouble at all and
daffs only mere feet away are fine, too and blooming like mad right now.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)