If you love the tiniest of the tiny, the miniature miniatures of the flowering bulb world, do give Narcissus calcicola a try. I got seeds of this species in 1990 from the IBS Seed Exchange and planted them in December of that year. They bloomed for the first time in spring, 1996, shocking me with their tiny 'King Alfred'-like perfection. I'm sure they would have bloomed a year or two earlier had I fed them a bit more potassium and phosphorus while they were growing up. But the species was new to me and I felt it better to err on the side of mild starvation rather than risk losing the bulbs to overfeeding.

My mature N. calcicola plants range in height from 3 inches (7.5cm) to the giant among them which towers over the others at a height of 4 inches (10cm). My plants set seed easily but only after I make several rounds of the flowers with a camel's hair brush, lifting the pollen from the anthers of one flower and transferring it to the stigma of the next. Each stigma is pollinated twice so I am sure each receives as much pollen as it can hold and from many clones. Several such forays into the blooming potful of plants are required of me each blooming season as the flowers open over a period of several weeks and I want to make certain to set as many seeds as possible. Even so, not every flower makes a seed pod. I end the seed gathering season grateful for the seeds I have collected and, often enough, amazed at the quantity of seed each tiny pod is capable of producing.

According to David Adams Narcissus calcicola can be used in hybridizing with other species. Mr. Adams writes, "The resulting miniature hybrids are most special and will equal the best of other hybridists."

I'm not surprised. This species is delightful in its own right. From time to time the IBS Seed Exchange lists seeds of this wonderful, surprisingly tough cutie.

This species sure can take the heat, as this horribly hot, dry Southern California spring of 1997 has proven. Its flowers stood up to 90'F+ heat day after day-and even one day when the temperature got up to 98'F-with fresh smiles on their little faces.

A native of West Portugal, it's doubtful that this species has much cold tolerance. But then, you never know until you've tried. (Personally, I would hate to lose so much as one bulb or seed of this tiny tot just because I wanted to test its cold tolerance. But then, that's me. Maybe if I had a jillion of them!)

My soil mix is pure crushed granite sand with an inch of Supersoil" (ground bark product) topdressing. A little fertilizer with potassium, phosphorus and a little nitrogen (nitrate: potassium nitrate or calcium nitrate-not nitrite-nitrogen, if possible; if not, use what you have, sparingly) used in small quantities three or four times during their growing season (winter-spring for me) will help your bulbs grow to blooming size quickly.

Treat them well and this species will come back year after year, multiplying and blooming better the older they get. Divide during dormancy when they're crowded in the pot or in the space you've provided them.

REFERENCE:

Adams, David. 1996. Calcicola and Cyclamineus Down Under. The Daffodil Journal 33(l).