Fritillaria 2019

[colin e]

Things are still moving forward here in the south west (UK). Of the 54 pots of seeds I sowed this year which started germinating on 02/12/18, I have now moved 35 of them from the fridge to the greenhouse. That is 64.8% of seed pots so far this year compared with last year at the same time which was 51% out of 92 pots. Two of this year’s are pictured below.
I currently have 239 pots with roots out of the bottom which is about the same as the two previous seasons which were 254 and 219 that I have kept dates for. Pots with growth above the potting mix is currently 70 and I only have last season to compare this with and on the same date last season I had 77 pots. Currently the only new Fritillaria I have to show is another Fritillaria karelinii (pictured below). I do have a reasonable number of pots were you can see the buds, but that does not mean I will see the flowers soon (pictured below). We just have to hope that after the relatively mild early winter the weather does not throw another ‘Beast from the East’ at us in the early spring!

Colin

[Maggi Young]

 Corolla retention after pollination facilitates the development of fertilized ovules in Fritillaria delavayi (Liliaceae) Yongqian Gao, Changming Wang, Bo Song & Fan Du :

 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37358-0       (open access - read online or download pdf))     

Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 729 (2019)

Persistent corollas increased fruit temperature on sunny days..

[Steve Garvie]

The first Frits are in flower here.

Fritillaria ariana -a robust rhinopetalum.





Fritillaria karelinii -a rather pale form.

[colin e]

But things are still growing just a lot slower. Slow enough for me to worry that I had got the watering wrong. So I lifted 2 of the 254 pots currently with red labels in (red label means roots out of the pot). The first pot was not a big mistake it was a pot of Fritillaria walujewi; there was still live root out of the bottom but not much more than when the red label went in. The second was Fritillaria tortifolia. When it did not want to come easily, I should have left it because there was a serious root explosion out of the bottom of that pot. So I just did what I normally try and avoid which is to disturb the roots but there was absolutely no sign of vegetative growth above the gravel or even the potting mix. So I will just have to wait to see. On the plus side I do have 146 pots with vegetative growth just visible or more but not as advanced as I would expect for this time of year. (Pictured below plunges A B C in 2018 and 2019 also plunge D in 2018 and E D 2019.)
Most of my seeds that I sowed at the end of last year (20/09/18 and 09/10/18) have germinated while in the fridge: 45 pots out of 53 and are now in the greenhouse. Of the 45, only 4 have not emerged yet. I will say that I do move them to a frost free greenhouse if we forecast to go below 0c.  The one I am most excited about is Fritillaria olgae - only 1 has so far has emerged but before that happened I had checked the seeds and I did have good embryo development but no germination. That was after 114 day in the fridge at 4c. Now I will have to be patient to see how many of the remaining 19 seeds will emerge.   

Colin

[colin e]

Well what a difference a year makes! Here we are at the end of January and I have a lot less flowers open and not as much vegetative growth as I did last year. To show you what I mean, attached are two picture of Fritillaria thunbergii one taken on 16/01/2018 the other on 28/01/2019. This difference in growth is similar all through the greenhouse. All I can put this down to is that this year we have not had as many days with sunshine as normal. The difference this makes to the temperature in the greenhouse is surprising even with all 8 roof vents, 8 louver vents and the double doors open! I do have one Fritillaria ariana just coming into flower but again the difference from 2018 to 2019 is substantial. The two pictures below show this.

Colin

[colin e]

 Nice plants Steve definitely you are more advanced than I am.

Colin

[Steve Garvie]

Thanks Colin.
Almost all of my “rhinopetalum” are showing noses or are well into growth. Fritillaria striata has been in leaf now for about 5 weeks (seed-raised and 2 years or more from flowering) whilst many others are now showing noses. My Chinese Frits are in a timber raised bed which has rain-protection but has open sides so unlike the greenhouse/cold frames it doesn’t heat up when the sun shines. Despite this walujewii, ferghanica, tortifolia and yuminensis are all showing prominent noses as is Frit. affinis which shares the same bed.
I haven’t sown as many frit. seeds as you but straussi, zagrica, karelinii, pluriflora and striata have all shown germination.

[Jan Jeddeloh]

That's quite the seed sowing operations you have going there Colin.  So how do you do it?

Do you sow the seed in the fall and pop it straight into the fridge or do you give it a warm period first?  And how big is your fridge anyway?  My husband thinks our fridge should be used for food only silly man.  And what do you do about seed ex seed which usually arrives and January or February?  The SRGC seed isn't sent out until mid January and then has to go thru an inspection station in Seattle before it is sent on to me.  As a consequence I'm lucky to see it before mid February. 

Just looking for any more tricks I can add to my repertoire. I do have a greenhouse that I keep just above freezing.

Jan in Portland, Oregon, USA

[colin e]

Hi Jan,
I have written an article for the Fritillaria Group about how I germinate Fritillaria seed. It would be too long to post here but if you would like a copy, private message me your email and I will send it to you.

Colin

[colin e]

Well things seem to be settling down now to what I would expect and flowering has started after a shaky start. As usual the rhinos are first to get going; a Fritillaria ariana is now fully open, also a couple of pots of Fritillaria gibbosa. The last rhino today is Fritillaria karelinii x  gibbosa sibling cross. This is a first generation cross of a pot full that I had originally had labelled as Fritillaria karelinii but was deemed to be a karelinii- gibbosa cross by someone I would not argue with. With more crosses now flowered I am beginning to think it could have been karelinii x ariana, but I doubt we will never know for sure. Finally, a pot of Fritillaria caucasica: This one always flowers with the rhinos for me.

Colin

[Steve Garvie]

Very nice Colin!

All of my rhinopetalum group plants are now in flower with many past their peak. The last few days have been surprisingly warm here with rising temperatures under glass -not conducive to longlasting flowers. Ariana is always the first up with me -especially a form from Afghanistan. Karelinii types are usually next with stenanthera following closely behind and then gibbosa with bucharica generally last.

Like with you caucasica is coming into flower here as is pudica. The current mild (almost warm) weather is pushing everything forward at a pace.

[colin e]

Thanks Steve. Like you the last few days here have been surprisingly warm and we have at last this year had some sunny days! This has definitely got things going.
I currently have a range of Fritillaria stenanthera in flower. The first is slightly fasciated but looks good. Second is a pot full that flowered for the first time last year for me and is flowering well again this year. It is a cross I did to try and get a stenanthera that had a more compact habit - it is looking promising. The last two are first time flowerers for me grown from seed: Fritillaria stenanthera  (from Karatau mountains) looks like it will be a good pink, the other is Fritillaria stenanthera “Ingachsach” which is whiter. Lastly, Fritillaria verticillata Urdzhar: a bulb I bought last year. I will have to see how I get on with it.

Colin

[Peppa]

What pretty Frits, Colin!

I have a question about F. verticillata... I often see many mail order vendors sell F. thunbergii as F. verticillata and I wonder if it is because they grow in similar growing conditions?

[colin e]

Hi Peppa
I think the main reason for the mix up of names is because F. thunbergii was originally brought into cultivation as F. verticillata. F. thunbergii is a much more forgiving plant to grow than F. verticillata which either likes you or disappears rapidly.

Colin

[Peppa]

Hi Peppa
I think the main reason for the mix up of names is because F. thunbergii was originally brought into cultivation as F. verticillata. F. thunbergii is a much more forgiving plant to grow than F. verticillata which either likes you or disappears rapidly.

Colin

Thank you for the information, Colin! I've noticed that F. thunbergii seems to like me so I was hoping that F. verticillata would act the same way... But it sounds like it's not that easy...  Your F. verticillata seems to like you very much!

The only Fritillaria that is blooming right now for me is F. ayakoana but it's been in the garage because of our cold weather and it's gotten a bit leggy.