FRITILLARIA 2017

[Maggi Young]

Some good advice from Laurence Hill's Fritillaria Icones  :
 Look at your Fritillaria tepal edges, they're very varied, right across the genus



more :
http://www.fritillariaicones.com/info/description.html

[Maggi Young]

Again from Laurence Hill's Fritillaria Icones site:

The Fritillaria seed PDF has been updated, now with 116 taxa http://www.fritillariaicones.com/info/Fritillaria_seeds.pdf

[Yann]

what a work!

[Maggi Young]

Laurence Hill's Firillaria Icones site is a tremendous resource - we have a lot to thank him for.

[Maggi Young]

"More than 600 Fritillaria names but less than 200 accepted, clarify the names and their synonyms at....." http://www.fritillariaicones.com/info/names/pub_names_az.html

- more from Fritillaria Icones -   I love this site - wonderful work shared with us all.

[David Nicholson]

Maggi, I can't get your link above to work?

[Maggi Young]

Sorry David - I think I've fixed it now. That take you to the Frit Icones page where one can choose  by alphabet to see the list - this is a direct link to a pdf to download :

http://www.fritillariaicones.com/info/names/frit.names.pdf
 

[colin e]

Update on Fritillaria seeds in the fridge. I had taken them all out to give them a watering because the surface of the compost tends to dry out - not good for germination. The first one has germinated and emerged - picture attached - Fritillaria persica.
Roots have continued to develop as they should and I now have a total of 87 pots with roots out of the bottom. If I were to check them daily I think I would find one or two a day. The growth shoots of many have started to develop so I really should stop delving into the pots to see what is going on. Not unexpectedly Fritillaria karelinii has actually made it above the gravel –just. (Picture attached). I probably should not water the Fritillaria karelinii pots when I water everything else in order to hold the growth back. But doing what I do works for me and my bulbs are slowly growing in size.   

[Matt T]

It's very hard to resist a little poke around to see what's going on under the gravel, Colin! F. obliqua is always the first one up for me, with leaves up some time in late October. I should also try to hold off watering a while after the other bulbs.

[colin e]

Further seed and root update:
I checked the seeds in the fridge today. The Fritillaria persica which first emerged on the 06/11/2017 now has 9 out of 13 seeds emerged. What I would normally expect to have emerged at this time of year in the fridge have just started: Fritillaria ariana, biflora, karelinii and pluriflora are all on the move with between one and three white, bent over, emerging seeds. These are now all in the greenhouse and will start to green up now that they have some light.
In the greenhouse all of the Fritillaria karelinii pots have growth above the gravel but no roots out of the bottom yet. But I am now up to 138 of pots with roots out of the bottom, so things are definitely moving.   

Colin

[colin e]

The first Fritillaria karelinii flower has opened, which is a bit irritating because I wanted this bulb to carry a seed capsule as it is the largest bulb. With luck, one of the others will open in time and dehisce so I can still get a capsule on it. I do not know if it is lack of anything else to go on, but greenfly seem to love them. I gave up just squashing them on a daily basis yesterday and went over them with a small paint brush dipped in insecticide. 
 The other thing to happen caused a big blue cloud in the greenhouse - language not repeatable here! A mouse got up onto the bench where the seedlings were and chomped through the karelinii seedling pot and ate all the emerging seedlings and a few seeds! Fortunately it did not get all of the seeds and some more are now emerging, but I got my revenge.   

Colin

[Maggi Young]

Oh. Mice! You have my sympathy - but I thought you still had cats ?

[Matt T]

I found voles had been at my Crocus banaticus earlier this year. I put down traps but only succeeded in killing a wren  . I swiftly took the traps away and have had another vole attack recently but don't want to lose any more beautiful  jenny wrens. A few corms is a small price.

[colin e]

Yes Maggi we used to have a cat but she passed on before we moved - picture attached.
Matt I do not know if it makes any difference but I put the mouse traps inside square long pots, so that the bait is not very visible and have yet to trap a bird thankfully - pictures attached to show what I mean. If I got a bird I think Paul would say we have to look again at mouse control in the greenhouses. We have a total of eight traps in the two bulb houses; I hope I have not jinxed it but we have caught no birds YET!

Colin

[Maggi Young]

Time for a new kitten then, Colin - or a visit to the re-homing  centre. 

We always cover a mousetrap with an upturned  terracotta pot, with only a small gap  made by propping it on a wee stone to allow  access to the trap only to a mouse. Happily birds are not so daft as to even try to get under a  clay pot.
Recently Ian has bought a new type of trap which is even less likely to kill any wee birds - it's got a sort of tube construction and the mouse must enter it  completely to be caught and  once sprung, all that is visible is the end of the tail. Again, too small even for the Wrens and Gold Crests  to enter - I'm off to try to find a photo of the new type. ....
here they are .....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victor-Clean-Kill-Mouse-Trap/dp/B00KGVCJX4/ref=sr_1_2?s=black-friday&psr=EY17&ie=UTF8&qid=1511718107&sr=1-2&keywords=mouse+trap