Fritillaria

For those with less space, F.recurva also comes in a much smaller form  ;D, reaching only 8 to 10 inches high max. These usually flower a good few weeks later than the usual taller forms, but this year they are virtually together as the taller ones are 3 weeks later than other years. No matter how much I feed and water, they stay compact, and leaf colour is more glaucous. These from seed from Shasta County, CA, at around 3,000 ft.

Ron

the tristulis are really lovely as are the recurva.

A more modest offering

Fritillaria drenovskii from Northern Greece which I think is really elegant

Nice one Tony. I find that species very difficult to capture well in a picture. You did a better job than I ever have.

Today the first F. purdyi have begun to open.

Edit 21st April 2014 to add a picture of plant with multiple flowers.

;D

This tiny flowered Fritillaria is unfortunately under severe pressure in most ( if not all ) of it's known locations in California, I believe. I hope someone can correct me on this, and advise that it is secure in the wild.
I think it is perhaps the easiest to grow of all of these 'adobe clay' types.
F.liliacea

Added April 19th 2014 five pictures of plants from a different location to the first three shown.

Fritillaria sinica (at least the given name). Looks in some way familiar to F. monantha or F. walujewii. Anybody who can verify :)

Arne wrote:

Fritillaria sinica (at least the given name). Looks in some way familiar to F. monantha or F. walujewii. Anybody who can verify :)

Arne, I have tried very hard to acquire material that 'fits the bill' for F.sinica ( as per the Flora of China - http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=113029 ), but I'm sure I have failed, so far. Each time the material supplied has turned out to be ( what I have keyed out to be ) F. monantha. Looking at the leaf shape, size and arrangement on your plants I would suggest that this is a more likely ID than F. sinica. Your flowers are, however, at least three weeks ahead of mine, :-\ I think the truth is these Chinese Fritillaria require more material to be examined and a lot more relationship work to be done. I'm sure someone is working on it  ;)
The only 'good reference' I've found to F. sinica is here - http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Northumberland/+August+/370/ . This one seems to be 'right'. I'm sure this species is in cultivation with someone, but I don't know where!
F. walujewii is .... well who knows?? It is very much being debated!
The one you show is a lovely, easily grown Fritillaria and sets seed profusely ( if its anything like mine ). No need for a dry period? Humus rich soil? How do you grow yours? They are looking good  8)

Thanks for the link and comments, mine is obviously not F. sinica. I aquired it here:
http://www.cgf.net/plantdetails.aspx?id=879
and it has taken a few years to establish. I grow it below a soutfacing wall and with a 'half roof' above so it get some summer dryness (but I may move it now ;)). I have F. monantha from another source, but that one is later and the stem is much thinner and the leaves are smaller, but that can just be variation.

At long last a nice day without gale force winds. Many of the F.affinis affinis are beginning to flower in the garden now. Here's a few of them. Very hard to spot from any distance, they really blend into the grass very well. Bees all over them. Of a few hundred planted I think most of them are through now and growing OK, including a few of the yellow form. About 50% will flower I think. Some flowers buds seem to have aborted, possibly due to late frosts here.
Once seed is collected this area of the garden will be burned, and then the seed will be scattered back around. Hopefully we can establish a self perpetuating colony within a few years.

Ron

I saw the pictures before the text and thought it was a posting from the wild. That is wonderful to have them growing in the garden like that.

Thank you Tony, that is exactly the effect we were looking for. We are trying to reproduce, as close as we can,  where they grow most in USA, and where they were 'farmed' by Native American People in this sort of environment. The wild card is the soil, as we have grown flowering plants for years in a 'regular' flower bed. They have survived all of the vagaries of the North East England years weather ( including very wet and very dry summers ). We are on a foot of soil over very heavy clay. We'll see in years to come if they can cope and prosper. They are doing OK, but these were huge strong bulbs and would probably have grown this year in solid concrete!!!  Some Deer have been in and nibbled a few, and the late frosts have 'stopped some dead in their tracks'. Managed to spend a few hours today lying down in amongst them in the deep grass, ( with the cats of course!! ) watching the bees move frantically from flower to flower. Paradise!!! Not quite the same as being on the West Coast USA, but nearer and less costly!! ;D
I'm worried the Deer will be back each night and take more and more, but that's all part of the project.
If we can establish them and get them to multiply I will be in HEAVEN! It was so good in the Sun today!

Ron

we found just a couple of plants near Ashland in Oregon in 2009 just by accident,we were looking for an erythronium when we spotted it. It is a magnificent species.

Here I have fritillaria liliacea in flower

Tony wrote:

Ron
we found just a couple of plants near Ashland in Oregon in 2009 just by accident,we were looking for an erythronium when we spotted it. It is a magnificent species.

It certainly is Tony. It seems capable of growing in most regular garden conditions, is variable is terms of size, form and colour, and readily produces seed and numerous small scales, so is easily propagated. The plants you saw in Oregon, ( thanks for the pictures ), were similar to all of the forms that I grow from material from Northern Oregon, in that they tend to be much more yellow in the flower, compared with the forms from further North. Not sure if this holds true in the wild for all populations, just a casual observation from all of the material I grow. I'm looking forward to checking this out one day along the West Coast,  ;D

Lovely F.liliacea Tony. Great proportions.

From China, and out in the garden now, Fritillaria pallidiflora. An incredibly tough plant and one that I would think would survive in just about anyones garden with the minimum of attention. Attracts the bees in profusion, and sets seed very readily. The seed germinates freely and is easily grown on.

RickR wrote:

......... it's fortunate that they have this one to begin to open their fritillaria palette to other possibilities.  

And what possibilities they are Rick. Especially with the West Coast USA species, which have the greatest range of colours of all  ;D . White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Pink Purple and Black are all available as flower colours, ( and of course the Green and Browns you mention ! ).
I suspect that most gardeners consider the Genus as all being very tricky plants for a 'normal' garden. Of course some are, but not all. Alongside F.pallidiflora, species such as F. meleagris, F. thunbergii, F.affinis, F.acmopetala, F. grandiflora, F.messanensis, F.pontica, F.pyrenaica, F.raddeana, F.stribrnyi, F.tubiformis tubiformis and F. tubiformis moggridgei should all be considered as growable by anyone who is able to grow Daffodils, Iris, Tulips and / or Lilies, etc in their garden. I think that most if not all of the Chinese species should also be easy garden plants ( and there are some beauties in this group ). I cannot say this ( about the Chinese species ) for certain though as I have only had them growing in the garden for four years ( being the longest ). The next few years will tell. Providing the soil does not become dry for extended periods F. camschatcensis quickly forms very good groups and will even run around under the soil somewhat by means of stolons. Sometimes, I think, the key to getting these species to establish in the garden is to start off with good healthy material. All too often people over here fail because the bulbs they buy from Garden Centres in the Fall are of very poor quality and weakened, by desiccation, to the point where if they grow at all in the following spring, they very rarely have the strength to come again the next year. So growing from seed, buying in growth, or buying bulbs from a top quality seller will greatly increase the success rate for the average gardener.
Heres another that should be on the list above, F. involucrata. Another very tough plant, able to grow perfectly well in most conditions. Very easy from seed, which is produced in good quantities.

F. camschatcensis 'Japan Lowland Form'

Another very easy Fritillaria for the garden ( providing it never becomes too dry ) is F. camschatcensis. The bulbs are usually formed at or very close to the surface of the soil. Most people here fail with this species because they plant the bulbs too deep. This is the lowland form from Japan, flowering just ahead of the USA and Russian forms. Whether there is a  true 'Highland Form' is very much under discussion. This paper attempts to describe differences, but may have some flaws. -

http://eprints2008.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/26240/1/3(5)_P219-232.pdf

Personally I think that it is highly possible that the 'Highland Form' is distinct ( from some personal correspondence ), but I'm sure time and further study will tell. If it does exist then getting any seed is proving impossible so far,  ;D .

As a number of plants of this form are isolated with me ( the Alaska, British Columbia, Washington State and various Russian forms  also have isolated flowers which are hand pollinated ) then the visit of this pollinator, Calliphora vomitoria is fine with me. Seed set by whichever method is always sparse here for this species.

I'd dearly love to hear from anyone who has observations of this species ' in nature'.

More F. camschatcensis, this time from Russia and Alaska.

Once established this species can quickly form ( usually by vegetative means ) strong groups.

Have you tried F. camschatcensis Trond? I suspect it would do well in your environment, and I've noticed that slugs will nibble on seedling leaves and those produced by the separated small scales, but more often than not ( here ) they don't eat the whole thing. The mature bulbs grow stems etc. very fast in Spring and in our experience are little troubled by slugs. It's possible perhaps that we have other things in the garden that the slugs prefer more!  :rolleyes:

Ron, nice Frit pics.

Frit camschatcensis grows very well down here near the bottom of the world  :) enjoying the moist conditions although it will be another 5 months before i see any colour.......

At one stage i was after any forms that were listed in the various overseas exchanges so I'm not sure what i have raised from seed as that was so long ago my memory has faded somewhat   :( although i was never successful in raising /obtaining the yellow variant.

The ones i do have here seem to vary quite a bit from clump to clump with the size of the flowers and degree of the green marking ,(if any),on the outside.

1st pic close up of a green black form ...

and then there is this one (2nd pic).....almost F. affinis like.......

Cheers Dave .

PS --I'd interested in knowing where you garden.Ta.

Two very lovely F. camschatcensis forms there Dave. The second one is quite extreme indeed. Looks a little like this one shown by Laurence Hill - http://www.fritillariaicones.com/icones/ic300/Fritillaria_Icones336.pdf .  It a shame the provenance is lost. Still real beauties though.  8) The degree of green in the flowers does vary quite a lot and varies from year to year I find.

If you fancy ever trying again Trond I have plenty of spare material I can let you have.

I garden on the coast of East Yorkshire, in the North East of England Dave.

Longma wrote:

Two very lovely F. camschatcensis forms there Dave. The second one is quite extreme indeed. Looks a little like this one shown by Laurence Hill - http://www.fritillariaicones.com/icones/ic300/Fritillaria_Icones336.pdf .
I garden on the coast of East Yorkshire, in the North East of England Dave.

Thanks for the link Ron and clarifying your address for me .
I had it figured that you lived on the West Coast of the USA somewhere.

Cheers Dave.

Fritillaria camschatcensis from a friend in Japan

Looks a good strong form Tony, and thanks again for the small scales, they're growing well. Hope the clay pot ( do you plunge? ) doesn't allow the mix to dry out too much at any time.

This was in my inbox this morning. Whilst not perhaps too accurate botanically, its nice to see the plant in the wild being promoted and recommended as a plant of local interest.
http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/lifestyles/208722891.html

I haven't Rick, not knowingly anyway.  :)

Came across this heavily fasciated F. camschatcensis today. Nine flowers and a very thick stem. First time I've ever seen anything like this amongst the Fritillaria, but I think it is not uncommon in Lilium etc.

Often reported as being sterile, F. affinis tristulis rarely fails to set some seed here. I transfer the pollen around the distinct clones ( possibly this is the reason ) and usually end up with some capsules containing viable seed. So far none of my own seedlings have flowered, but I'm very hopeful for next year.  ;D

From Japan,  F.koidzumiana.