Fritillaria 2012

[McDonough]

Dave, that Fritillaria kotschyana is a charmer!

[Toole]

Maybe I should try this one! Don't need a ladder to look at the flower, anyway

Hoy ---up until a couple days ago the pot was on top of our water tank ,(currently the sunniest spot in the property),..... and that situation required a step ladder ....  

Dave, that Fritillaria kotschyana is a charmer!

Hopefully i'll have time the next day or two Mark to take a pic of it showing the flowering further on ,with petals divided from each other and the tips curved outwards.

Cheers Dave.

[RickR]

Hoy ---up until a couple days ago the pot was on top of our water tank ,(currently the sunniest spot in the property),..... and that situation required a step ladder ....  

Cheers Dave.

Dave, I remember that photo you posted (many months ago) showing the plants aloft.  When a gardener (also from down under, by coincidence) on another forum complained he had no room left and had to move pots just to get to others, I showed him that pic!

[Toole]

Hoy ---up until a couple days ago the pot was on top of our water tank ,(currently the sunniest spot in the property),..... and that situation required a step ladder ....  

Cheers Dave.

Dave, I remember that photo you posted (many months ago) showing the plants aloft.  When a gardener (also from down under, by coincidence) on another forum complained he had no room left and had to move pots just to get to others, I showed him that pic!

 

Here's Frit Kostchyana at full flowering --pic taken yesterday on a cloudy dull day.

Cheers Dave

[Hoy]

Maybe I should try this one! Don't need a ladder to look at the flower, anyway

Hoy ---up until a couple days ago the pot was on top of our water tank ,(currently the sunniest spot in the property),..... and that situation required a step ladder ....  

Cheers Dave.

Well, I hadn't thought of that possibility  (In fact I was thinking of Rick's tall plant)

[RickR]

It's been Fritillaria seed  planting time for me, and the deed is all done.  Yesterday I also finished repotting fritillaria seedlings.  I would have waited another year, but I was afraid the soil mix was too heavy, and they were suffering because of it.  So I am trying an new media, Fafard 52 mix that is much more airy, as the base for my ammended soil. Once again, you all get to trudge through with me in my fascination with underground structures.  At this stage, the different species look a lot alike, especially in the photographs.

The same batches of Fritillaria seed, at least for me, have more of a habit of sprouting multiple years than most other genera.  Sometimes one year can make a big difference:
Fritillaria pallidiflora - 2 & 3 year seedlings.
              

Sometimes a little difference:
F. pyrenaica - 1 & 2 year, F. carica - 1 & 2 year, F. pallidiflora - 1 & 2 year.
        
              

Some not much difference:
F. collina - 1 & 2 year seedlings.
              

The smallest ones, F. montana.  Had I been more observant, I wouldn't have repotted these, being only one season old, but in my haste it just...  happened.
              

A representative Fritillaria camschatcensis.  This one likes the moisture retentive soils and is treated differently.
              

You can see some fragile new roots on some bulbs.  I suspect they would be more robust in the right soil mix, and it probably would have been better if I repotted earlier, before they emerged.  Roots on the F. camschatcensis, however, seemed to not be in a yearly growth and death cycle.  They seem quite perennial.  Are there other Frits that do this?  

[Toole]

Great pics and information Rick.

Here are a few out at the moment ....

A nice coloured form of F.acmopetala.
F.cirrhosa.
F.conica.
F.crassifolia i think.
F.drenovskii.

Cheers Dave.

[RickR]

A really nice, varied grouping, Dave.  And such perfect flowers! 

Thanks for taking the very detailed pics, too.

[Michael J Campbell]

Very Nice Dave.

[Hoy]

Rick, it is interesting to see the bulbs although still small! I have not dared trying many Frits from seed yet but are tempted!


Very nice, Dave! Seems I have to try more seed though to get all those kinds

[Tony Willis]

I am on my third year of sowing the seed in pure seramis (I use cat litter) as shown by Wisley. So far the results are super with very strong growing bulbs being formed. I have sown in small pots are then potted on the resulting seedlings which is easy for me on a small scale.

I am hopeful of my first flowers in year four on crassiflolia and erhartii.

[Hoy]

I am on my third year of sowing the seed in pure seramis (I use cat litter) as shown by Wisley. So far the results are super with very strong growing bulbs being formed. I have sown in small pots are then potted on the resulting seedlings which is easy for me on a small scale.

I am hopeful of my first flowers in year four on crassiflolia and erhartii.

Never heard of seramis before. Is it cat sand?

[Tony Willis]

Google seramis and you will find a desription.

It is quite expensive and  'non clumping' cat litter is made of the same stuff and much cheaper.

The theory was written up in the Wisley Alpine Log but I cannot find the article but it was also in the September 2009 Plantsman

[Hoy]

Thanks. I have The Plantsman - have to dig out that issue - and go looking for cat litter sand

[Toole]

A few more ....

An early Frit. affinis -- others in troughs elsewhere in the garden are a couple of weeks away from blooming.
 
Raised from seed as F.hispanica which i think is now called F.lusitanica........

and a nice black form of F.acmopetala.

Cheers Dave.