Fritillaria 2020/21 season

[colin e]

Well in my brain this is when the Fritillaria season really starts. I have got all my pots plunged. I may still have to move a few around to try and keep the moisture level in some pot as I would like. Pictures of plunges below.
I did my first watering on 01/10/20 because the temperatures at night were under 10c and were forecast to stay under 10c for two weeks. They just about did but since then we have had some very warm nights. So I have had to be careful to keep them on the dryer side with the main moisture at the bottom of  the pots. Even with doing this I have still got 27 pots with live roots out of the bottom. Some pots have roots over 5cm long; luckily I do not think I broke any.
Like Bob I have put some pots of bulbs in the fridge. This is the first time I have done this. My main reason for doing this is to delay their flowering time to increase my chances of getting viable seeds off them. These pots are at 5c with my seeds. I also have some high altitude Chinese cold – growing seedlings and these are in another fridge at 2c. This temperature should be cold enough to check shoot development. I know it should be 1c but that would not give me any real margin for variation in temperatures. Time will see how I get on. Pictured below are two of these pots showing a couple that are already growing before being put in the fridge! One is F. albidiflora FG19 and the other is F. ferganensis KV19.
I can do nothing about the outdoor bulb bed, it just gets our weather and in this one of three Fritillaria persica OP213063 from Orin Perry seed in 2017 has already come up - see the picture below. I hope the other two just think it is too early to start into growth and have not died.

[colin e]

Yesterday I was checking my sown seeds that are in the fridge to make sure they were not drying out. I was surprised to find three of the pots had germinated (one pictured below). Well, one specifically meleagroides FG20 the other two are ones that tend to root early for me as bulbs anyway so no big surprise.
In the greenhouse I am getting more roots out of the bottom of pots. I am now up to 48 with live roots out of the bottom. Plus I have 6 pots with growth above gravel admit-ably from only two species: Fritillaria persica and striata. Both pots of the persica material originate from Israel. OP213063 is a bicoloured form and I also have a green form coming along (pictures below). Does any one else grow the OP213063 form because mine are making offsets which I have not known persica do before? My Dutch Fritillaria persica is as yet not showing growth. Of the OP213063 bulbs in the bulb bed it is still only the one out of three showing but is definitely on the move (picture below). I was fortunate last year to be given some seeds of Fritillaria striata which I actually sowed into three pots. I did this in case I made a mistake with one pot I would still have some. So far they are all doing well; one pot pictured below.

[Maggi Young]

Hello Colin - I'm interested in your  comments  about  roots  showing  from the  bottom of the  pots..... since  I assume  most  of  these  pots  are  plunged  in sand, are you  not  worried about  damaging the  emerging roots when  lifting the  pots from the  plunge ? 

[colin e]

Hi Maggi I tend to not lift pots once I know roots have started coming out the bottom. I put a red label in the pot by the name label to tell me roots have come out and then don’t lift that pot again. If I have to, I try to take as much root and sand as I can and then double pot them in sand to keep as much root as possible. The picture below is of a pot that was lifted to go to a Fritillaria Group meeting for example.

[Maggi Young]

glad to hear  you  do  what you can to mitigate  damage, Colin!

[ashley]

Harvesting of F. delavayi from wild populations is apparently increasing the prevalence of more cryptic brown/grey forms (see e.g. here for a lay summary; original paper behind paywall).

[colin e]

Although we have had more cold nights this January than we have had before, things are still on the move. Of my 425 pots or more 277 are showing some type of growth. 214 have roots out of the bottom and 176 have growth showing above the potting mix. Of the 45 pots of seeds I have sown this season 31 have germinated; below is a picture of some of them. Something to watch out for is aphid - the next picture shows one of my seedling pots with three aphids on it. You can spray but I use a paint brush dipped in water or insecticide solution and pick them up with it. The next picture is not very good but the green blob on the end is one of those aphids which was then dealt with.

Colin

[colin e]

I have now had my first flower of this season which has taken its time to open and is Fritillaria striata pictured below. The first three are of that flower and the fourth picture is of my other adult bulb. With luck I may get a seed pod on it; time will tell.

Colin

[colin e]

Fritillaria davisii AGS00 in the greenhouse, it has been a very good doer for me. So some years ago I put some into the grass in front of our house (which is being cultivated as a wild bulb meadow) and yesterday I spotted these two pictured below. Finally the Fritillaria persica OP213063 from Orin Perry that is in the bulb bed has not liked this January because it has had to cope with snow and most nights below freezing, but it is still with me if not looking very good -see the last picture.

Colin

[Peppa]

I have now had my first flower of this season which has taken its time to open and is Fritillaria striata pictured below. The first three are of that flower and the fourth picture is of my other adult bulb. With luck I may get a seed pod on it; time will tell.

Colin

Pretty F. strata, Collin! I have some small seedlings of this and hopefully I will be able to manage to get them going and see the flowers! The temperature is going to go down from next week, so I am preparing to move and protect some of my plants. Fritillaria koidzumiana has started to bloom and F. ayakoana is budding up, as well.

[ashley]

Those are lovely Peppa.  You seem to have a fine potful going on     Are they from seed?
Here F. raddeana has begun flowering.

[Peppa]

Those are lovely Peppa.  You seem to have a fine potful going on     Are they from seed?
Here F. raddeana has begun flowering.

Yes, Ashley. I got several seeds a long time ago from my friends in Japan. And they are finally getting going. You seem a bit ahead of us here, my raddeana are just poking up out of the soil.

[colin e]

Thanks Peppa.
Even though it has still been cold here (on the ground outside -7c last night) things are still moving. Fritillaria sewerzowii (pictured below) is outside in the unprotected bulb bed. The bulb at the top of the picture has been there since 2018 and the one closest since 2019 and they have been becoming bigger and stronger plants year on year. I do not think I will be able to say that about Fritillaria persica OP213063; it is definately not looking good. The foliage has suffered with the continuing cold we have been having. In comparison the seven bulbs in the unheated greenhouse are looking good (pictured below). In the greenhouse some bits have started to flower. A Fritillaria straussii from a 2014 sowing has started (pictured below). This is the only one in the pot to have any stem. The rest are opening just as they come through the gravel so do not make a reasonable picture. They will come up on a stem in time but the flower will not look as fresh then. Also just starting to open, Fritillaria gibbosa x good pinks from a sowing in 2016 (pictured below). Most of the other gibbosa pots are behind this one.

[colin e]

Lastly what is labelled Fritillaria crassifolia ssp Kurdica ex Batman, which I think will end up as Fritillaria kurdica, are from a sowing in 2017 (pictured below). They, like the strausii, will get a little taller.

Colin

[Maggi Young]

Colin, were the  Fritillaria sewerzowii doing well outside  in the garden originally grown from seed? I was wondering if perhaps  Fritillaria persica OP213063 had come  as   a bulb and was feeling the change from it's previous home?