Description
MINOR AMAZING (perhaps N. pumilus?)
1Y-Y or 13Y-Y
[Trumpet (1a) or Species (13)?]
The true epithet for this tall, slender, larger-flowered version of N. minor remains elusive. Having seen the plant in at least two gardens suggests that it was commercially distributed in the past. Hartland offered Minor Maximus in his Little Booke of Daffodils of 1885: “An intermediate form” between “Trumpet Daffodils suitable for Edgings and Rockwork” and “the larger types”. His description – of “a very neat dwarf sort … having the graceful “Maximus twist” in perianth, and deeply lobed, or frilled trumpet at the edges” – is compelling, but I worry that the perianth colour of our stock is insufficiently dark to warrant “almost rich self yellow”. Our field notes state “flower darker than N. minor”. The second troubling fact is that “This Dwarf Daffodil is “new” to the experts of England, and is quite distinct”. So novel, in fact, that it seems to have disappeared from later Hartland “catalogues”. Perhaps MINOR AMAZING is actually N. pumilus, or Parkinson’s Pseudonarcissus Hispanicus medius luteus, which he describes (in Paradisus (1629)) alongside minor luteus: “These two lesser kindes of Spanish Daffodils, doe but differ in greatnesse the one from the other, and not in anything else“. This small early-flowering daffodil with green upright foliage deserves further study. Happy to share some stock in case any of you out there can name it …
