Fritillaria 2019/20 season

[Ophrys]

Fritillaria pallidiflora has been established in my garden for a few years.


Last year's seedlings in their second year.

[olegKon]

My first experience with Fritillaria stribrnyi still flowering due to cold May

[Gerdk]

Fritillara camschatcensis aurea - seems growing better after transplanted in a shady position

Gerd

[Leena]

Thank you Steve for the tips of which species to try.  I will try them from the next seed exchange.
Here is my F.pallidiflora, finishing flowering now. I have grown this from seeds more than ten years ago, and it grows well even in clay soil.

[colin e]

I was surprised yesterday when I took off my summer protection for my Fritillaria collection. I had done 99% of my repotting early because I thought we might have been in for a long hot summer and I did not want them to get hotter than necessary. So none of my pots or plunges have had any water for over two months. The plunges were overdue some water. The first two pictures show my summer protection. I said 99% because I had a few left to do but I had missed a pot of two year old seedlings that came off a plant of Fritillaria purdyi x biflora (pictured below). So I quite happily tipped the pot out and picked the small bulbs out. The picture below shows what came out of a 7cm pot. The surprise can be seen in the next picture of just two of the bulbs. Well over 50% had already started to grow new roots. In a totally dry potting mix! So water cannot have been the trigger to initiate new root growth, but we have had some unseasonably cool night-time temperatures - quite a few below 10c and even as low as 4c. This may be what triggered them.   

[ashley]

Interesting to see this Colin.  Drimia, Haemanthus & Merendera also respond to lower night temperatures rather than moisture as the primary trigger, and their first flowers often emerge when pots are still bone-dry.