Fritillaria 2014

[Maggi Young]

Gerry, I have corrected the link for you :

"Growing Fritillarias in clay granules " by Paul Cumbleton
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/RHS-Publications/Journals/The-Plantsman/2009-Issues/September/d-Frit-cultn-small

[Steve Garvie]

Many thanks Gerry & Maggi! 

[Gerry Webster]

Thanks Maggi.

[Yann]

Fritillaria crassifolia ssp kurdica Talysh

[Robert]

F. persica is easy to come by in our area and easy to grow. I always enjoy it and will continue to grow it. 

[Tony Willis]

What a lovely persica ,not a hope here of growing it.

Fritillaria poluninii a gift

[fixpix]

Why Tony? What's wrong with F. persica and England in the same sentence?
Something lacking over there for it to thrive?
I'm asking cause I'm currently growing some seedlings (sowed last year).
So far so good, came up nicely, both in a pot and in the garden.

[Tony Willis]

I have permanently wet heavy clay and it rains most days(literally),I think that answers the question.In winter much of the garden is waterlogged for weeks on end in spite of having put drains in.

[jshields]

F. persica and imperialis have not survived long in my garden here in Central Indiana (USDA zone 5, ca. 1000 mm precip).  My guess is too much water and too cold in winter.

Jim

[fixpix]

Hm, my persica seedlings seem ok, although not much bigger than last spring... still just one leaf.
My imperialis seem to do well. But one big bulb is missing (out of 3 in the group)... a no-show. I wonder what happened.

[mark smyth]

After several attempts to get F. imperialis to grow in the garden I'm very happing to have them back for a third season. Each bulb is now two but they are short and they don't have many flower buds. How can I improve their height and number of flowers?

[Brian Ellis]

Mark I would say they are gross feeders, we throw everything at them in large amounts!  When I was a child Dad used to grow them on the compost heap!

[rob krejzl]

Mark,

Imperialis doesn't usually offset very much. Two stems for each original bulb suggests they have split and may be under a little stress. How deep have you planted them?

[fixpix]

OOOps, and I grow mine in really poor soil.
We (well, dad) have a cow, and rabbits, and chickens and I never seem to have enough time to actually do a little bit of fertilizing.
All the goodies go to the hills, where we have a vineyard and some more land.
Also... another thing, I bought a yellow friti. in the fall, I planted it, and I have two emerging from that bulb. So that's bad???

[rob krejzl]

Think of hybrid tulips. One of the major reasons for them ceasing to flower is when they split into daughter bulbs that are too small to flower, and the usual advice (apart from feeding) is to plant deeper.