Erythronium 2008

[Ed Alverson]

I don't see a thread for people to post their 2008 Erythronium photos, so I thought I would start one.  After Ian's inspiring Bulb Log series of the past few weeks, I'm suspect that there is lots of interest.

I don't yet have any erythroniums in flower, but the flower buds are showing on several species I have growing in the open ground.  They are E. hendersonii, E. helenae, and E. tuolumnense.  Erythronium multiscapoideum is also an early flowering species, maybe someone else already has it in flower by now?  It sounds like some of the Eurasian species are also early bloomers.

We had a good long cold spell last month so the flowering season is probably a bit delayed compared to a "normal" year (whatever that is).

Ed

[Susan Band]

The foliage on the hendersonii is almost as nice as the flowers. It annoys me a bit that the hendersonii are the first to show their flowers but seem to take ages to actually flower, some of the others overtake them. Here the Erythroniums are in exactly the same stage.

[Ian Y]

It is interesting to see the stage of your Erythroniums Ed, as Susan says they are at almost exactly the same stage as ours.
Susans observation on the slow growth of E. hendersonii form appearing to flowering is one of the things I have been watching.
The extreme is found in E montanum - it is always the last to appear through the ground and open its flowers but it is the first to set seed and retreat to dormancy. Obviously the have evolved in areas that have different growing conditions and most E. montanum has a very short growing season in its habitat so its rush to perform.
The only flower that I have out just now is E caucasicum plus a very early form of E. dens canis that I got from Brian Wilson is just about to flower for the first time from seed.

[Ian Y]

And here is that early flowering Erythronium dens canis.

[Andrew]

The only flower that I have out just now is E caucasicum.

My E. caucasicum is also out, the stem is extending now and the flower has just cleared the earth.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

This is how my E. multiscapoideum cliftonii looked about a week ago - it has developped nicely since. 

[art600]

a 'Pink Perfection' from Leonid Bondarenko

[David Nicholson]

That's a little gem Arthur.

[art600]

I am very glad that I discovered Leonid Bondarenko on the Forum.  All his bulbs have been a great success, ranging over Trillium, Erythronium, Crocus, Iris, Colchicum, Scilla and Merendra.

Have ordered many more this year.

[Paul T]

Ian,

Love that caucasicum, and the dens canis is particularly special.  Those dark anthers are so showy, particularly on such an elegant flower.  Beautiful!

[Diane Whitehead]

In 2004 I bought 8 bulbs of Erythronium dens-canis from Janis Ruksans.
One flowered last year, and two different ones are flowering now.

This is Lilac Wonder.  The two flowers that are first to open have
started to become double.

Is this to be expected?  The catalogue says it has a brown centre, but
the doubling makes that difficult to see.

[Ed Alverson]

We've had a rather cold and wet winter so the flowering season seems behind schedule (though probably just close to the long term average), and finally some of the species that were in bud in mid-February have finally opened.  The first flowers on Erythronium tuolumnense actually opened March 9th, and the first Erythronium hendersonii opened March 16th.

In regard to E. tuolumnense, my patch had been growing well vegetatively but not flowering prolifically, so last year I actually fertilized the plants, and this year they responded by producing many more flowers.  Most stems have 3 or 4 flowers, one has 5.  I really like the yellow color of E. tuolumnense, and the production of vegetative offsets is a good thing, but the form of the flowers tends to be a bit disaapointing, at least with the clones that I have growing.  I'd like to get seeds from crossing of the different clones, but my plants don't seem to want to produce good seed (so far).  Maybe I need to fertilize more...

Ed

[Paul T]

Ed,

Mine were doing exactly the same thing until a few years ago when I put a slow release commercial "bulb food" fertiliser on them as they surfaced for the year.  The following year they flowered beautifully, and each year since.  I apply it just as they break the surface each year, so that they have plenty of food to aid this season's flowers as well as plenty of food to set up next year's.  I've not seen as obvious a correlation with the other species, but tolumnense definitely responds well.  Then again, I grow most of the rest of mine in pots anyway, so they get their food at repotting time (on the years they actually get repotted!).  Must check and see how many species I still have after the last few years of drought had them struggling a bit.  I think a lot of them didn't come up last spring so I guess they're gone! 

Lovely to see the Erythroniums up here, and looking forward to more of them as the season progresses.  Thanks everyone. 

[Ian Y]

Hi Ed. it is interesting to see that your erythroniums are flowering at almost the same time as ours here in Aberdeen.
As for Erythronium tuolumnense, it is often said that it does not flower very freely - I can say I have never found that.
We grow several forms, some from seed and some we got as bulbs, and they all flower well.
They are variable and I have separated out some of the best and most distinct and I raise them in deep boxes and repot them every year - they increas and flower well.
They are not the best erythronium when it comes to setting seeds. Some have never set any seed while the best seed producers are the ones that I have raised from seed.
I will be showing more forms of Erythronium tuolumnense in the bulb log in coming weeks plus I intend to post more erythronium pictures here.

[Gerry Webster]

Erythronium tuolumnense is also flowering here on the S.Coast, though my form (from Mike Salmon) is not as nice as the one in Aberdeen.