Scarlet Bells - Don't believe everything you read

Dear Medit Plant People:

I live in southern California and was also was intrigued by the "Scarlet Bells" showing up at local Trader Joe's markets and OSH hardware and garden centers. The tag did say it was a California native, reliably returning in zones 9 & 10. I read your postings questioning just what species/hybrid it could be and then I noticed that the plant tag included the name of the distributing nursery, Nurserymen's Exchange in Half Moon Bay, in northern California.

So, I called them and asked their customer rep. She said she'd check with the grower and get back to me and this is what she wrote:

From: "Debbie Durant" <ddurant@bloomrite.com>
To: rcorwin@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Scarlet bells
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:23:07 -0800

"It is Meleagris. It is native to Europe and Asia. It is not recommended for Zones 8 and 9. It IS recommended for Zones 1-7 and 15-17. In any case, it is a nice, fairly long lasting house plant in any climate.



Deborah Durant

Customer Service"


So I guess the moral is, don't trust plant labels, if it looks like meleagris, it probably is.

Robin Corwin
Studio City, California\
Zone 9/10 - Sunset Zone 21

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