Description
Narcissus cantabricus petunioides was described by John Blanchard, in his epic 1990 book, as “the most beautiful of all the hoop petticoats” and much of the history of this plant entwines around John and his father Don. The original plant called petunioides was received by Don Blanchard in the 1930’s from the firm of Van Tubergen, in the Netherlands. It was received as a part of a larger batch. John records that Charles Mountford also got a plant at that time but subsequently lost it, so the Blanchard plant was for many years the only one from which material was propagated.
The petunioides name was finally described botanically by Abílio Fernandes (Kew Bulletin Vol. 12, No. 3 , pp. 373-385 (1957)), from this same original material grown by Don Blanchard. When describing the plant Fernandes assumed that this plant originated from Algeria but this, although likely, has not been positively verified. Certainly petunioid forms are known in the Algerian mountains and they have been found there by both John Blanchard and Michael Salmon, at high altitude in the Atlas Mountains of both Algeria and Morocco.
The original 1930s plant has now been taken through many generations in cultivation. Jim Archibald recorded that selfed-seed produces only white seedlings, but that these are not all of the petunioid form. Only those with the distinct, flat, round coronas of the parent plant are entitled to the name. The authenticity of the plant has been dogged by the, perhaps understandable, desire to grow the name, so that, sadly, seedlings raised from petunioides not having the true characteristics, abound in horticulture.
Some years ago, (2005) John Walker of Lancashire obtained seed of two forms of petunioides from the late Jim Archibald. One lot of seed in turn originated from Mike Salmon at Monocot Nursery from plants which Mike had found in Morocco. The other batch was the original 1930s stock from John Blanchard. Jim and John were near-neighbours and friends in Dorset (where I met them both in the early 1970s).
Upon flowering the blooms of the two stocks proved to be very subtly different from each other. All were white as expected and previously reported. Also as expected, not all were petunioid in form. John says that flowers were sporadic though the solitary, narrow leaves were plentiful. However John took the two best flowering plants, which conformed exactly to petunioides, and he crossed them with each other. The resulting seed was grown on and on flowering he further selected the progeny and propagated the best one, vegetatively, naming it after his daughter, Andrea Jayne. Our plants are vegetative propagation of the original and have come to us direct from John Walker. They are clonal and true to type.
So in summary we have a selected, confirmed, vegetatively propagated and named form of Narcissus cantabricus petunioides with an impeccable lineage, direct from the raiser and it conforms absolutely to the original petunioid description. Seedlings from this plant are not entitled to the name, only vegetative (clonal) propagations.
First offered in our lists July 2021
