Heirloom Tazettas

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Etc., Etc., Etc.
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Heirloom Tazettas

Heirloom TazettasHeirloom TazettasHeirloom Tazettas
Home
Flower Categories
  • Fall Bloomers
  • Winter Bloomers
  • Late Winter Bloomers
  • White Tazettas (not PWs)
  • Distinctive Paperwhites
  • Yellow Tazettas
  • Florists & Parlors
  • Primping for Prime Time
  • Fragrance
Etc., Etc., Etc.
  • Bulbs for Sale
  • Hybridizing History
  • Names and Terms
  • Readings and Gardens
  • Societies
More
  • Home
  • Flower Categories
    • Fall Bloomers
    • Winter Bloomers
    • Late Winter Bloomers
    • White Tazettas (not PWs)
    • Distinctive Paperwhites
    • Yellow Tazettas
    • Florists & Parlors
    • Primping for Prime Time
    • Fragrance
  • Etc., Etc., Etc.
    • Bulbs for Sale
    • Hybridizing History
    • Names and Terms
    • Readings and Gardens
    • Societies
  • Home
  • Flower Categories
    • Fall Bloomers
    • Winter Bloomers
    • Late Winter Bloomers
    • White Tazettas (not PWs)
    • Distinctive Paperwhites
    • Yellow Tazettas
    • Florists & Parlors
    • Primping for Prime Time
    • Fragrance
  • Etc., Etc., Etc.
    • Bulbs for Sale
    • Hybridizing History
    • Names and Terms
    • Readings and Gardens
    • Societies

Cultivar Names

Tazettas (Italian for "little cups") are a "section" within the genus Narcissus. Sold as "polyanthus narcissus" for decades if not centuries,  there has been a recurrent effort to have them reclassified into their own genus (once proposed as Hermione).


The lack of period photographs makes conclusive identification of these heirloom tazettas anywhere from annoyingly difficult to basically impossible.  


Names in single quotes are officially registered with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). In the 1990s, John C. Van Beck, co-founder of the Florida Daffodil Society, registered three heirloom tazettas in his collection - naming one for his wife, one for his daughter and one for his newly-born first grandchild. 


Names in double quotes are "place holder" names, based on appearance, garden origin or the original gardener. 


Observation and poring over an extensive collection of period catalog descriptions has yielded tentative identifications for a number of cultivars. A few are sufficiently distinctive flowers to match well a detailed description from a highly reputable catalog. 


Flowers that resist all attempts of identification but that have distinctive attributes and a strong growth habit will be registered with the RHS (eventually). Unsurprisingly, most of the flowers in the collection fall into the descriptive category of "nothing to write home about." They might make for winter garden "filler," or be fun for the total gear-head, but that's really not enough to warrant registration.  

Terminology

UID - Unidentified (borrowed from archaeological field work)


Tazetta - A plant of the Section Tazettae, within the genus Narcissus. Includes bicolor tazettas, paperwhites, and a host of other species. A horticultural catch-all term. 


N. tazetta - A species plant, with broad morphological characteristics. A broad species found across the Mediterranean basin. Usually white with dark yellow/orange corona (cup).


Corona - Botanical term for "cup"


Perianth - Petals


Poetaz - Hybridized creation between a tazetta and a "poet" (a species Narcissus poeticus, other similar Narcissus species or a derived daffodil hybrid)



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