Erythronium 2008

[gote]

Mark,
I posted my kind of Altai Snow in this topic some days ago. The source was Ruksans and I think he named it so it should be right. What you have, might be a seedling that either has reverted to the reddish or is a cross with the red ones.
I have noted that sibiricum have a tendency of trying to flower before emerging. The pedicel elongates all the time. This seems worse if it is recently replanted. I think that your is suffering from transplanting shock. I keep my sibiricums in a fairly shaded position.
Next year iyours will probably look right - perhaps even better than Altai Snow.
Göte 
PS
My dens-canis niveum looked like this saturday. They have such a good colour combination in the leaves and flower.

[Paul T]

Gote,

Fantastic plant that one... the striking leaves, white flowers and blue anthers are an amazing combination.   Beautiful!!

[Ian Y]

Janis Ruksans has now described the plant he called Erythronium Altai Snow as Erythronium sibericum ssp altaicum.
As a sub species it is not represented as a single clone but as seed raised plants so they will vary within the limits of the description and this includes some that may display some pink tinge as they fade just like yours Mark.
Here is a picture of one of mine - more will appear in this weeks bulb log.



Hans from the picture I do not think that your last Erythronium is E. oregonum but an E. californicum or white beauty type.

[mark smyth]

Nice long stems, Ian. Where do you grow yours?

[mark smyth]

Hot off the press/camera card is the lovely 'Craigton Cream' selected by Ian himself. Smell good too almost with a hint of lemon. Kinky style too that I didnt notice until Ian told me just now

Oh I like bright evenings! Only a couple of minutes from garden to computer and on to the forum

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Super flowers Mark !!

[mark smyth]

Thanks but it is hats off to the selector. They are doing well in a 1L long tom

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Mark,
Our hats are always off for the BD ! 

Oops - I just noticed I passed the millenium !

[ChrisB]

And hats off to the photographer, these are some very fine photos you took Mark.  Super plant too of course, that always helps.....

[Maggi Young]

Oops - I just noticed I passed the millenium !

Congratulations, Luc, better nip out to the shop and get yourself some chocolate!

[Paul T]

Ian,

Both the former 'Altai Snow' and your own lovely selection are great flowers.  I'd be pleased to flower either of those here in my garden, that is for sure.  Thanks to you and Mark for the photos for us to enjoy.  Love that kinky style!! 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thank you Maggi, but I would gladly offer the chocolate to the girls on the forum   
For myself I would be thinking of something else ....    maybe liquid.... 

[gote]

Ian,
You are of course right. If it is a ssp it might come out pinkish. I believed 'Altai Snow' be a clone. Now this explains why the ssp altaicum I ordered are so similar to the 'Altai Snow' I have grown for some time.

Mark,
I grow these outside and the one I moved and damaged slightly this season came up like yours - i.e. Flower first - come up later. My first one did that year one but not later.

Göte

[mark smyth]

I'll get my altaicum planted out later this year.

I should have said the blue background for 'Craigton Cream' is the blue sky.

This Saturday I'm helping Margaret Glynn whos garden is open for the Irish Garden Plant Society. She has high hundreds of Erythroniums in her garden but no hybrids. Maybe she needs a trained eye to look for them, Ian! Obviously I'll have lots of photos to post

[Ed Alverson]

In the 2007/08 issue of Lilies and Related Plants, which has just arrived,
there is an article by Brian Mathew on Erythronium.

He mentions the "Sulphur Form" of E. oregonum which has been grown
in the U.K. for many years.  When he visited Oregon, he saw it growing
in a garden there, and was told it came from Kelley Butte.

Now, there are two Oregon places with a similar name.  Kelley Butte
is a small park almost in downtown Portland, and Kelly Butte is in a volcanic
area almost in the middle of the state, in Deschutes National Forest.

Can one of our Oregon members tell me which is the most likely place
for me to go next spring to look for one?

Last December, Diane Whitehead posted a note about the recent issue of "Lilies and Related Plants", which had the above reference to the "Sulphur Form" of Erythronium oregonum, in an article on Erythronium by Brian Mathew.

This piqued my interest, and with assistance from a local expert, last Saturday April 12th I was able to visit Kelly Butte in Portland to see the Erythronium that grows there.  It was a glorious day, sunny and hot (86 deg. F, a record high for the date).  Kelly Butte is a small forested hill in a largely residential neighborhood, across the street from the local soccer field and, next to that, a big recreational vehicle dealership.  Erythronium oregonum grows in patches across the hillside, not hugely abundant, but the plants are very robust and healthy looking.  This may be, in part, because the "soil" is composed of rounded cobbles mixed in with a bit of forest humus. 

Now, you might ask, why is the side of a hill covered with river cobbles?  The likely reason has to do with a series of gigantic floods that ripped across Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, at the peak of the last glacial period.  The ice sheet had blocked a valley in the Rocky Mountains, forming a large lake behind the ice dam.  Eventually, the lake level rose high enough to overtop the ice dam, releasing a huge (and by huge I mean bigger than you could ever imagine) burst of floodwaters.  By the time the water reached the Portland area, it was still carrying lots of rocks and gravel, and in the eddy formed on the lee side of Kelly Butte, a lot of the smaller gravel dropped out of the floodwaters and settled on the side of the hill.