re:fritillaria
- To: "'perennials'"
- Subject: re:fritillaria
- From: S* C*
- Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 09:11:22 -0600
In response to your posting,
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 20:00:01 -0800
From: mraitz@accessone.com
Subject: Fritillarias
Hi All,
I'd be interested to know what fritillarias people are growing, and
with what success. My F. meleagris have been dwindling except for
one clump, all in heavy soil, I admit, and so has Imperialis - lack of
feeding, I'm sure. Some lovely narrow sophisticated looking ones
surprise me faithfully every year, F. elwesii, but they have good
drainage where they are.
What prompts the question is my new F. persica, a find at a 40% off
sale. Must this have total sun and heat? Heavy feeder? Do you get
re-bloom?
What are your favorites?
Marian Raitz
Bellevue WA Zone 8 most of the time
I love the F. meleagris (purple checked and white mixed) and have
some that are quite old and that were moved from a prior garden. These are
in shade in a bed with ferns and rhododendrons in a soil that has a lot of
leaf mold in it.
A few years ago, I put a hundred into a new bed and found that many
fewer than that appeared the next spring. But the ones that did make it the
first year seem to be coming back well. Again, it's a shady area with leaf
mold.
I think that the bulbs are sometimes too dried when you get them in
the mail, and that this explains some of the first year losses. Although we
have extremes of heat, mugginess, and cold winter wet here in Illinois, the
shade beds where the fritillaries return well never have either standing
water or cracking drought because we use lots of leaf mold and we run the
sprinkler during dry times. (We never really feed with fertilizer as opposed
to top dressing with leaf mold and mushroom compost.)
I also have some F. michaelovsky in a raised bed in a sunnier
location that seem to do okay but are not increasing. I used to grow F.
persica (a dusky plum beauty of a flower!) in a prior garden and have just
put in three bulbs here this fall. For them, I think that light soil with
water in dry times and some partial shade works best, in zone 5b anyway.
I have grown the F. imperialis in the past too, but the skunky odor
is a problem with them. In a bad winter, they may not be hardy unless they
are in very well-drained soil, and they do want full sun. But they are
colorful, for sure.
I'd like to grow the western frits, but you need drying off periods
that don't correspond to Illinois at all...sigh. But it's a lovely genus of
bulbs with lots to try. Enjoy!
Susan and David in Urbana, Illinois, zone 5b
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