Fritillaria 2018

[colin e]

A continuation from the post of 21/12/17
It is a new year and down in the south west of England things are moving faster than I would like; I am still getting to grips with the climate down here.
I have taken all but six seedling pots out of the fridge as they have now had three months at 5c max. The fridge did get a low 3c at some point. Of the 92 pots of seeds that were in the fridge, 45 pots have germinated and emerged; 11 have germinated but not emerged yet which leaves 36 pots, some of which I can see the growing embryo in the seed, but the root has not come out of the seed yet. There are a small number of seed pots that I do not think will do anything because the seed was not very good in the first place, but you never know. The picture below shows some of the seedling pots.
Pots with live roots out of the bottom is now up to  218 pots and pots with growth above the gravel is now up to 69 pots. The Fritillaria gibbosa shown in the last post is pictured below as it is today not quite in flower. The Fritillaria ariana from that post is now in flower and pictured below. I now have to hope we do not go the way of the USA and freeze! I think I saw temperatures of -29c on the news!

Colin

[Arda Takan]

great photos

[colin e]

Thanks Arda.
A continuation from the post of 07/01/18
It is now two weeks since I took the pots of seeds out of the fridge and a further 15 pots have now germinated and emerged taking the grand total of emerged seed pots to 60 so far.
Pots with live root out of the bottom has slowed up now with most of what is left being pots of small young bulbs or bulbs that root late for me. On the other hand, pots with growth above the gravel is now up to 104 pots. The first Fritillaria gibbosa still does not like the temperature enough to stand up straight yet. The same can be said for the second pot of Fritillaria ariana which is just starting, but the first ariana is nice and straight. The second pot of Fritillaria gibbosa to flower you would actually think was the first, as it is standing up straight; this is from JJA seed. Another JJA seed plant is this Fritillaria straussii which always starts flowering at gravel level but it does eventually come up. It is also supposed to get some dark tessellation but never does so.

Colin

[Matt T]

Good to see so many seedlings popping up, Colin. I had no Frits germinating before I went away for Christmas. When I came back to the Uists I found many pots with seedlings pushing up. A check this weekend found the following, in no particular order: F.pinardii; F.bithynica; F.kittaniae; F.carica; F.bucharica; F.stribrnyi; F.strausii; F.serpenticola; F.rixii; F.ehrhartii; and F.ariana.

[colin e]

Glad to hear you are getting good germination and emergence Mat. Now you have to grow them on for a few years before they will flower. Sorry to be a kill joy.
Colin

[Matt T]

Thanks, Colin!    Some of the best plants are worth waiting for.
I have young bulbs from previous years sowings flowering each year now, so the next 6-7 years for these Frits to flower will pass in a flash.

[Steve Garvie]

Fritillaria karelinii-A pale-flowered form and the first in flower here.

[colin e]

Maggi here is a better form of Fritillaria gibbosa JJA 495.856  I thought you might like.

[Maggi Young]

A cracker, Colin !

[colin e]

A continuation from the post of 20/01/18
The number of germinated and emerged seed pots is now 70 out of a total of 92 giving 75%. But if I exclude the pots of seeds that I did not expect to germinate (poor seed) it would be 70 out of 85 giving 82% and of the 15 seed pots not yet emerged, 6 of them were sown later than I like. I live in hope.
Fritillaria with shoots above the gravel has now gone from 104 to 195 pots, and pots with live roots out of the bottom is now 231 pots. So the plunge now has a lot of red (roots out of the bottom) and purple (shoot above gravel) labels, so at a glance I know what each pot is doing. Picture of plunges below. One surprise I have had is Fritillaria glauca which has shoots just above the gravel like a lot of other pots but I would not normally expect them yet.
I have two pots of bulbs sown in 2014 that are going to flower for the first time this year: A Fritillaria gibbosa that has an interesting coloured bud  - time will tell how good a colour it is (picture below) and a pot full of Fritillaria stenanthera shoots that look thick enough to flower. These were both crosses that I made myself so it ups my interest.
Coming up to flowering for the second time for me are firstly a seed-grown Fritillaria eduardii var inodora, and secondly a bought bulb of Fritillaria ‘Early Passion’. This is a recent introduction from Holland and is, if I remember correctly, a cross between Fritillaria imperialis (a yellow form) and Fritillaria raddeana.
Colin

[colin e]

My three different seed sourced pots of Fritillaria chitralensis are in flower now and it is interesting to see the slightly different petal shape from each source. It did worry me at first but I have been assured that they are all Fritillaria chitralensis. I am trying to make seed but our night time temperatures have fallen to -3c and forecast to get colder so this could kill the developing embryos. I will see what happens.   

Colin

[colin e]

A continuation from the post of 05/02/18
I now have 80 seed pots that have germinated and emerged, up from 70, plus 1 sowed 06/12/16 and only just now germinating and emerging. This is just another example to me that it is better to keep late arriving seed till you can sow them in the following autumn.
Most things are on the move now with 260 pots with greenery above the gravel, up from 195 pots.
The Fritillaria gibbosa that had an interesting coloured bud is in flower now. The petals are a bit too thin to be pure Fritillaria gibbosa. I reckon it has got something else in it - ariana or karelinii, both of which have narrower petals than gibbosa. Also, I do like the twisting leaves. The Fritillaria stenanthera is also in flower now and has stayed short so far which is what I was after, but they are young bulbs (sown 2014). Time will tell what they do eventually. Another first flowering for me is this Fritillaria sewerzowii; quite a pleasing bicolour effect I think. I have made a number of sowings of Fritillaria sewerzowii from different sources to see what colour variation I get.

Colin

[colin e]

My Fritillaria eduardii var inodora looked very vibrant today so I took a picture. Here, I am now moving on to the next lot of bulbs in the flowering season which as usual is starting with Fritillaria caucasica. This one is always the first Fritillaria caucasica to flower followed by two others which are still in tight bud. Finally a Fritillaria kittaniae JJA0497.700 with a fasciated flower though the stem is not, or maybe it was going for two buds on that stem but did not quite make it.

Colin

[colin e]

Quite some time ago at a Fritillaria Group meeting at Wisley I took along a pot of what I had labelled as Fritillaria karelinii? because I was not 100% sure it was karelinii. There were also a number of other pots labelled as Fritillaria karelinii and they were all quite different in one way or another. We were also fortunate to have Martin Rix talking to us that day so Rannveig Wallis asked if he would give his opinion of them. He did and started by saying none of them were true Fritillaria karelinii. I cannot remember what he said about the others, but of mine he said it was the most karelinii-like but he thought it had crossed with Fritillaria gibbosa, but could not be certain so I called it Fritillaria karelinii x gibbosa. Pictured below.
 It took me some time but I started to line breed them to see what would happen. I have to say now, although I hand pollinated I did not isolate the flowers. So it is possible other pollen could have gotten on to the stigma. I now have a sibling cross of the originals pictured below. Which I feel would bring into question that gibbosa was the other parent, as this plant looks more ariana-like to me, with thinner petals and a more open flower spacing. Also the leaves on these plants are more slender and in keeping with Fritillaria ariana. I then took pollen from this plant and pollinated one of the original plants. Seeds from that cross were sown and have now flowered and the flowers on these plants do look like they have gibbosa in them, being a fuller looking flower with wider petals and not such an open appearance. The leaves on the other hand are still slender and more in keeping with Fritillaria ariana than gibbosa. So with hind sight I am more inclined to say it was a cross between Fritillaria ariana and gibbosa and had no karelinii in it. To be fair to Martin he did say it was not Fritillaria karelinii and he could not be certain what it was.   

Colin

[Maggi Young]

Ariana does look to be more likely in your  line crosses, doesn't it. Very fetching "mixed widgets"  as we call them.

Ian has grown F. swerzowii from quite a number of seed sources  over the years and the variation in them is delightful -both in colour and the  arrangement  of the flowers  -  not a bad one amongst them. 

I must say I prefer the broader  petals in the F. chitralensis, with the feint  striations - a bit more  "glam"!