Hello bulb-loving people,
This past year, I ordered a few heirloom Narcissi (N. 'Golden Spur') that showed up looking healthy—no complaints, apart from them being on the pricey side, but I was okay with spending a little extra for the blooms I had anticipated. However, this Spring when they emerged, only a handful of the blooms looked to be true to name. I'm trying to ascertain if I was sent an order containing some incorrectly IDed plants, or if this could be due to cultural problems on my end. The suspect blooms weren't so far off that I was sure they couln't be the real deal only stunted somehow, especially since they could be lined up in a sort of gradient if I'd dug them up and arranged them that way:
Some of the plants didn't seem to thrive and sent up only a smattering of foliage and diminuitive blooms...
(Plant to the bottom left)
A few were larger but the petals in the corona didn't behave like they should...
(Bloom from the larger of the above plants—it is smaller and held more erect, plus the corona petals are not curled back on themselves or generally as inflexed)
(Correct for comparison—size difference is hard to tell from photos since the plants weren't next to each other, sorry!)
But some at least appeared to be the correct cultivar.
The seller has pretty favorable reviews, and I think I read somewhere that this is one of the varieties that does better in the North, so I don't want to ask for a refund or replacement if it's not the seller's fault. (My soil is probably more clay than they'd like, but I did amend it. Plus, we've had a crazy warm and wet winter). I suppose what I'm asking is if it is possible for culture/weather to have created such variation in flower size/shape, or even if younger offsets might produce smaller blooms, or if this is probable cause for contacting the seller with a complaint?
Regardless, I'll be interested to see how they look next year... Just trying to decide how to proceed in the meantime.
Thank you!
~Will
[3/17/19: Edited lightly for clarity on photo captions and concluding remarks.]
