Hoop-Petticoat Daffodil (Narcissus bulbocodium)

Hoop-Petticoat Daffodil
Narcissus bulbocodium
(nar-SIS-us) (bulb-oh-KOD-ee-um)

I visited both the New York Botanical Garden and Wave Hill Gardens in the Bronx yesterday. The gardens weren’t that far along but there were a lot more plants blooming there then here in Connecticut. The Daffodil and Daylily Walk was just staring show some of the unique varieties of Daffs. I took a few pictures because I noticed in my archives I really don’t have many Daffodil pictures. I organize my photos by years first and then by months so I can see by season what I have. The Daffodil and Daylily Walk is one of the greatest aspects of the NYBG, in my opinion. I have used it on my jobs many times on a smaller scale. The brilliance behind it is the emerging Daylilies hide the gone by Daffodil foliage. I also visited the Rock Garden and the Ladies Border. I did notice a few of the Magnolias had been tinged by the frost.

Wave Hill is a much smaller and more intimate garden. I noticed they are looking for an Assistant Horticultural Director if anybody is interested. I know some of the staff there and they are a nice bunch of people. The Conservatory is small but wonderfully in bloom. When entering the wave of fresh floral scents were amazing. I couldn’t tell what exactly was fragrant but it seemed to be several plants mixed together. The Cactus and Succulent Collection is always interesting and had several types in flower. The thing I found most interesting was the Alpine House . I have visited it many times and this time there were more plants blooming. You view the plants from outside so you have to kind of stick your camera in there and hope for the best. The fans don’t help, as they gently blow the plants back and forth, so I was using a fast shutter speed. The rest of the gardens really had just started coming out. I am glad that I went yesterday, as today seems to be a complete wash out, with the big Northeaster coming in. We are supposed to get up to 4 inches of rain with high winds. I am glad that there are not too many flowers out, as they would have been shredded by this wind.

The Daffodil pictured here is interesting and something you don’t see too often. I really love dwarf Daffodils in general and this one is a stand out. There is quite a controversy over the naming of this one. I wanted to stay out of that and just use the generic name. It was growing in the Alpine House in a small pot. For more information on Narcissus see this post.



In the description of the Hoop Petticoat Daffodil it says:
“perianth tube 6-25mm” and a look at the dictionary says the definition of perianth is: “The outer envelope of a flower, consisting of either the calyx or the corolla, or both.”