'Trena'
Miniature Daffodil
"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."
-I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,
William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."
William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
The five 'Trena' bulbs we planted near the roadside's Strawberry Tree & alongside some salal each had two or even three well-developed offsets, so it was rather like over a dozen bulbs.
It produces offsets rapidly &mp should be dug up about every third year to have the bulbs separated. As a miniature it averages only about ten inches height & in bright sun can be blooming when much shorter than that.
'Trena' is categorized as Narcissus cyclamineus, but as a hybrid it might well have N. triandrus in its heritage too. It is a bicolor with strongly reflexed ultra-pale-yellow or creamy white perianth & long tubular yellow trumpet with ruffly flange.In our garden the first ones opened in the second week of March in 2004, & before the end of February in 2005, well before Spring officially begins. For a couple of days the perianth doesn't fully reflex & it's an extremely humble looking thing hiding its bowed face. But then the pale petals suddenly reflex far backward revealing the ruffly bright yellow trumpet, & it becomes an awesome miniature.
These early spring blooms occur mostly one per stem. They raise their heads amidst thickets of stubby fat grassy leaves, & remain so sharply bowed they're almost like tiny geese pecking at the ground. It is no wonder that among daffodils' folk-names are such as Gooseflops or Goose Leeks.
When still buds they're goose-like indeed, but in full open flower they're like geese with fancy dress-collars, so that 'Trena' is really quite an odd wee thing.
It was introduced in 1971 after having been developed by Mavis Verry of New Zealand. Her creation has received many awards in the decades since, up to & including the most vaunted prize of all, the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.