A diary of back garden botany, urban ecology, rural rambles and field trips to the middle of nowhere...
Saturday, 12 September 2020
To my eye Narcissus 'Thalia' is the most graceful of all the daffodil cultivars. Spring flowering of course but I recently bought a couple of dozen bulbs to add to the ones I planted a number of years ago hence the photo.
'Thalia' is related to Narcissus triandus which grows wild in Portugal, Spain and France. It is generally described as a hybrid but I can't find any reference to what N. triandus was crossed with or by whom to create 'Thalia'. Perhaps it was a form selected from the wild? Similarly there are varying accounts of when it appeared. Some sources say 1916 in Holland, others describe it as a favourite of Victorian gardeners, one source dates it to 1610.
Narcissus 'Thalia' is an old, possibly ancient variety whose origins are lost in the mists of time.