Narcissus tazetta subsp. tazetta ‘Flore pleno’

Horticultural & Botanical History

Figured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine as the ‘Cyprus or double roman Narcissus’.  ‘The Bulb has been long since annually imported from Italy, by the proprietors of Italian warehouses; together with that of the Paper or Italian species; and a still more double variety of the present with fewer flowers, a shorter tube, and a greater number of yellow segments.  This last bears a strong resemblance to the variety of Narcissus incomparabilis (see No. 121) known among florists by the name of “The Butter and Egg Flower.”  According to Clusius, both the double varieties of the present species were originally introduced into our parts of Europe, from Constantinople by the way of Vienna.  They have since continued to be cultivated in Italy, where they preserve that doubleness for which they are in such request; but which we suspect they soon lose to the northward of that country, as we never receive it in that state from Holland.  The roots generally arrive in England late in the autumn; and if then planted will flower in January.’  [BM t.1011/1807].  The plant illustrated has white perianth segments rather than the rich yellow shown for the single form.

History at Camden Park

Narcissus orientalis pleno is hand-written in a copy of the 1850 catalogue held in the Mitchell Library collection, signed Wm. Macarthur and dated 23rd December 1854.  [ML 635.9m].

Notes