CULT: reticulata performance

From: Bill Shear <bills@hsc.edu>

As the reticulata season winds down, a few observations.

'George' in its third year showed diminished bloom.  One planting of 6
bulbs (planted 1997) produced no flowers, a second produced four (this last
clump had 12 blooms last year).  These are in part of a perennial border
with rich soil and plenty of moisture.

'Springtime', also third-year, continues to do very well, and the original
8-bulb planting of 1997 had 32 blooms this year.  'Springtime' is planted
in the lee of the trunk of a leaning pine, in rather poor heavy soil that
gets little moisture in the summer.

A nameless cheapo from the local garden center, 12 bulbs planted in 1998,
put on a matchless second year performance, with the bulbs at least
tripling and in some cases multiplying the number of blooms by five.  The
flowers were also produced in a sequence, so there are still some fresh
ones in the garden some 3 weeks after the season began.  These are probably
some selected form of histrioides x reticulata, or of just histrioides, by
the looks of them.  They are planted among TBIs in a well-prepared and
fertile soil, but lacked for water this past summer.

One planting of I. danfordiae did not come back at all.

Finally, there were two blooms on an old reticulata planting (dark violet,
very narrow falls and tall foliage) that had shown nothing but foliage for
the past ten years.

The common factor to good performance seems to be a hot and dry summer
season, either because of microclimate ('Springtime') or because of summer
drought.  The exception was 'George' which did quite well in the second
year, so I don't really have an explanation for the way it worked out this
year.

Anyway, I'm primed to plant more reticulatas this year.

By the way, we are almost awash in crocuses, which have naturalized all
over the place, popping up even in the vegetable garden and lawn--and
literally thousands of oriental hellebore hybrid seedlings have appeared
(forgot to deadhead until too late last year).  I've been selecting for
pure whites and got some beauties blooming for the first time this spring.
Also excited to see H. nepaulensis for the first time.  Now if we can only
get some consistant rains...

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@mail.hsc.edu>

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