Fritillaria 2012

[Hoy]

I have almost given up frits as they are excellent slug food except the common Snake's head. But you guys give me the spur to try again!
And Mark, although Hibiscus syriacus do overwinter here it don't like our cool summers so flowers are rare

[Tim Ingram]

I can't claim much credit for the Frit. elwesii; it is actually a potful that came from Jim Archibald's greenhouse when I visited him a few years ago, and so it holds rather a good memory! Kevin Pratt, who co-wrote a book on Fritillarias, describes many species that might grow successfully in the garden and I am trying more and more from seed (like raddeana and eduardii and affinis, which is wonderfully variable and a good doer), but it will be quite a few years before any of these show any flowers. Fortunately (touch wood) we don't suffer badly from slugs, but do have Lily beetle!

[Hoy]

What is the worse - slugs or beetles

[Weiser]

Thank all of you for your kind comments about my photos of the pudica. It won't be long now and they will be hard to spot as their season is nearly over. I usually can spot them out of the corner of my eye. You walk along head bowed scanning the brush and dead cheatgrass, then eureka a flash of yellow, among the drab grays of spring, catches your eye. Always a pleasure to see and smell. They have a sweet fragrance similar to Asiatic lilies but much more muted in it's intensity.

[bulborum]

Slugs are worse
often they cut the flower-stem (one or more years lost)
and are more difficult to trace
lily-beetles are easy to handle
and just eat a piece of the leafs or flowers (before I kill them)     

R

[externmed]

Seems like the red lily beetle larvae may head for the bulb at some stage, and leave nothing.  Al least I've had some (lily) plants totally disappear without an alternative explanation.
Charles Swanson MA USA

[RickR]

I've never heard of lily beetle larvae eating anything but above ground parts.  I could be wrong, though.  I have seen slugs eat lily bulbs, even here in Minnesota where it is drier than Massachusetts.  I'll bet that that is a more probable scenario.

[McDonough]

What is the worse - slugs or beetles

Slugs are by far the worse of the two.  Having gardened in one of the slug capitals of the world for four years, the Puget Sound area of Washington State, where hordes of "banana slugs" as big as cigars ravage herbaceous plants nightly (daily too, when it's rainy), I'd much rather be in a drier climate where slugs are not a major concern, if at all. 

At least lily beetles are small and festively colored (although the larvae that can hatch if the eggs are left to develop are gross), and the beetles can be hand-picked and disposed up without much fuss.  The plant types they attack is relatively few, versus the much broader range of plants attacked by slugs.  And besides, I find oversized slugs and their oversized abundance of slime just plain disgusting, and squishing them borders on being a nightmarish experience.

This year the lily beetles showed up extra early, no doubt brought about by the two weeks of summer-in-winter temperatures, I found them on the emerging shoots of Frits.  Killed the ones I found, but after the return to reality and back to freezing temperatures, I haven't seen any since.

[McDonough]

Rick, that's one fine pot of Fritillaria camschatcensis you show there.  Maybe next year you'll be able to show us some bloom, isn't the anticipation the best part!

Two views today of F. crassifolia ssp. kurdica taken today, the first showing the main plant in bud, love the gray curling foliage and low downturned flower stems.  The second is a repeat of a view showing sown-in-place 2nd year seedlings of the same Frit, taken with my wife's new Canon Powershot digital camera.

[Tim Ingram]

Those bulbs look really happy Mark! I've never managed to establish crassifolia in our garden but it is a wonderful species in foliage and flower (mind you nearly all frits. are when you get hooked on them I think, such extraordinary and unique flowers).

[RickR]

I wonder if Fritillaria spp. have the propensity to skip a season(or more) of above ground growth, like many Lilium spp.?  Even undisturbed, I have had that happen with multiple species of lilies.

Well I just answered my own question:
  Last season I thought I lost my white form of Fritillaria meleagris, as it never showed above ground, even though it had flowered multiple years before.
  This year it is back strong.  (Left:white form, right: purple.)  Also in the pic is, Hieracium villosum, Fibigia clypeata, a single sprig of Penstemon cobaea, and Gentiana septemfida.

               

[Hoy]

I wonder if Fritillaria spp. have the propensity to skip a season(or more) of above ground growth, like many Lilium spp.?  Even undisturbed, I have had that happen with multiple species of lilies.

Well I just answered my own question:
  Last season I thought I lost my white form of Fritillaria meleagris, as it never showed above ground, even though it had flowered multiple years before.
  This year it is back strong.  (Left:white form, right: purple.)  Also in the pic is, Hieracium villosum, Fibigia clypeata, a single sprig of Penstemon cobaea, and Gentiana septemfida.

What a relief, Rick

Looks pretty dry there, do you lack rain?

[Poulsen]

Fritillaria hybrids flowering now.

They are a result of a hybridisation program involving F. eduardii, F. imperialis and F. raddeana

Breeders website: www.keizerskroon.net

[Poulsen]

And here comes the pictures...

[kalle-k.dk]

My Fritillaria meleagris flowering now, also my double flowred alba. I got it several years ago from a friend as found it in a garden with a old farm.