Re: Allium triquetrum and snowflakes

Thanks for all the information and expertise! I finally got to see a 
real live Leucojum complete with little green dots on the petals (in 
the local Safeway, of all places!) and you are all right on the money --
no confusing this with "wild onions". Thanks again for the info!

Chris - THGA
Off to *annotate* my copy of Western Garden . . .


> 
> Hi folks
> The flowers of the Leucojum are definitely bell-like with little
> points to the petals each having a marked green spot. I don't know
> which Leucojum the Sunset book is describing when it says the leaves
> are grasslike*, but it cannot be L. aestivum as the leaves of this
> species are actually large and strap shaped like those of a big
> daffodil but a more yellowy green and very shiny and last for a long
> time. They  arise from  large permanent bulbs with, if I remember
> correctly, a brown coat -entirely unlike the little round white ones
> of the Allium anyhow. I am pretty sure they don't hav any onion odour
> either. They don't spread around much either, though the bulbs do
> multiply vigorously eventually forming very large clumps. They seem to
> me to have too high a proportion of foliage to flower to be really
> choice and take up a lot of room in the border with their leaves, so I
> rooted my clump out eventually. There was never any suggestion though
> it might spread out elsewhere in the garden to become a weed.
> 
> I greatly prefer myself their cousins the Snowdrops (Galanthus spp) of
> which I have lots. These have a nice proportion of foliage to flower
> and the whole plant dies down tidily soon after blooming. As these are
> mostly from  southern Europe, the Mediterranean or places east, they
> should be entirely suitable for growing in member's gardens and worth
> collecting to get a good spread. Species can be had in flower right
> from autumn till late spring. Although all are basically white, the
> interesting green (sometimes yellow) markings on their inner petals
> and the variations in the leaves and the shapes of the flower make
> some varieties exceptionally attractive. If they like your garden they
> will multiply happily and seem to have no diseases, and in my garden
> no pests either.
> 
> * There are several other Leucojums besides L.aestivum, the majority
> mainly suited to a rockery, which are much smaller and dainter, such
> as L. autumnalis, which has fine leaves which I suppose look "grassy"
> and single small bell-like flowers which are tinged with pink. I grow
> an even tinier one (l.roseum) in a trough, which is flowering now in
> our late summer. Its tiny grassy leaves spread flat on the ground and
> the exquisite little bells are a pretty apple blossom pink. Neither of
> these though could by any stretch of imagination be confused with the
> allium. There are also some white-flowered ones with slender leaves,
> but all quite rare and more often grown only by specialists.
> 
> Moira
> -- 
> Tony & Moira Ryan
> Wainuiomata NZ, 
> where it's Summer in January and Winter in July.
> 
> 
>
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