Erythronium 2009

[Paddy Tobin]

Ian,

My mother-in-law had a saying, "There's money in sh.t" meaning that hard, and even dirty work, brings in the money. This saying always fascinated one of our boys. Imagine our laughter when he returned one day from our neighbours and said that his Nanny was right, that there was money in sh.t because he had seen our neighbour dig a fertilizer bag which contained a money box with lots of cash out of the dung heap. As it happened, our neighbours had builders in doing some work and for security he had buried his cash in the dung heap.

So, mother-in-law's old saying was proven true but not as she had meant it.

Paddy

[Gerry Webster]

Brian Mathew has written about "Pink Beauty" in a 1992 paper in the Botanical Journal of the Linnaean Society, vol. 109 pp. 453-471.  He says "Carl Purdy also selected a 'soft pink' variant from Humboldt Co., California, which he called 'Pink Beauty'"  Also in this paper, Mathew discusses E. "White Beauty" and clarifies that is is a form of E. californicum, not E. revolutum. 

Ed - I imagine much the same material can be found in Brian Mathew’s article on Erythronium in the AGS Bulletin vol 66 no 3 (Sept 1998). This may be more accessible  to forumists.

[Rodger Whitlock]

E. grandiflorum grows on Mt. Prevost, a lowish (800 m) mountain just outside Duncan, British Columbia:



It is restricted to the cold north slope of the mountain; this is widely considered to be one of the lowest altitude stands of this normally-alpine plant, but I'm not entirely sure that's true.

Many years ago I was putzing around trying to find the erythroniums and my companion on the trip spotted some seedlings. These long ago reached flowering size in my garden (planted in the coldest, shadiest aspect I have), but rarely flower satisfactorily. Usually if they flower at all, the scapes do not elongate properly and the flowers end up scrunched down into the basal leaves looking upward.

However, this year because (presumably) we've had an exceptionally long winter, two of the bulbs are flowering with scapes properly elongated.

To those UK members lusting after this species, my advice is to put it on your list of plants that don't do well in captivity and aren't worth expending mental energy on.  Members in cold-winter climates (Scandinavia, Central Europe) might have better results. Even if you could establish a good patch, however, the end result would be hardly different from a patch of E. tuolumnense, which is a very easy, unfussy plant with no fads.

I'll try to post a picture later on.

[Susan Band]

Rodger,
I have to disagree with you on E. grandiflorum. I have a lovely plant grown from NNS which has brown anthers, I will get a photo when it flowers this year.
Here is a different E. oreganum ssp. leucandrum which came amongst some NNS seedlings. I thought it was quite a special colour and had lovely marking. I will separate it out.

Susan

[ian mcenery]

Ian,

My mother-in-law had a saying, "There's money in sh.t" meaning that hard, and even dirty work, brings in the money. This saying always fascinated one of our boys. Imagine our laughter when he returned one day from our neighbours and said that his Nanny was right, that there was money in sh.t because he had seen our neighbour dig a fertilizer bag which contained a money box with lots of cash out of the dung heap. As it happened, our neighbours had builders in doing some work and for security he had buried his cash in the dung heap.

So, mother-in-law's old saying was proven true but not as she had meant it.

Paddy

  safer than a bank these days 

[gote]

E. grandiflorum grows on Mt. Prevost, a lowish (800 m) mountain just outside Duncan, British Columbia:
To those UK members lusting after this species, my advice is to put it on your list of plants that don't do well in captivity and aren't worth expending mental energy on.  Members in cold-winter climates (Scandinavia, Central Europe) might have better results. Even if you could establish a good patch, however, the end result would be hardly different from a patch of E. tuolumnense, which is a very easy, unfussy plant with no fads.
I'll try to post a picture later on.

It also grows well on Mt Rainer (formerly Mt Tacoma) in Washington state. These pics are bad scans of photos from the eighties.
I try to grow "Pagoda" which I assume is  tuolomnense variety or hybrid. It is not reliably frost hardy here. Grandiflorum probably would be.
Have a nice Easter
Göte
 

[Tony Willis]

A picture of Erythronium tuolumense growing at Russian River California in very wet conditions.

A picture of Erythronium montanum on Mt Rainier Washington. We were told that it never grew with E.grandiflorum but they both grew intermingled in some areas.Both species covered large areas and were snow melt plants.

[Lesley Cox]

To those UK members lusting after this species, my advice is to put it on your list of plants that don't do well in captivity and aren't worth expending mental energy on.  Members in cold-winter climates (Scandinavia, Central Europe) might have better results. Even if you could establish a good patch, however, the end result would be hardly different from a patch of E. tuolumnense, which is a very easy, unfussy plant with no fads.

Oh. As my winters are less cold than those in the UK, I suppose I may as well throw out my 60 something seedlings right away then?

[t00lie]

[/quote]

Oh. As my winters are less cold than those in the UK, I suppose I may as well throw out my 60 something seedlings right away then?
[/quote]

You can throw them out down my way if you like Lesley .

I have a nice clump of E.grandiflorum ssp pallidum,(white anthers),which flowers regularly here in our sheltered woodland setting which is possibly warmer in winter than you on the hill .

Cheers dave. 

[gote]

We were told that it never grew with E.grandiflorum but they both grew intermingled in some areas.Both species covered large areas and were snow melt plants.

I made the same observation. If you look at my lower pic you will find a montanum among the grandiflorum. I did not see as many montanum as grandiflorum. The grandiflorum grew like dandelions. All the yellow colour in my pic is grandiflorum.
Göte

[Susan Band]

Here is Erythronium grandiflorum with brown anthers just starting to flower here. I certainly think it is worthy of a place in the garden.
Susan

[udo]

Susan,
this Erythronium grandiflorum is very nice, i have no luck with this species.
Here some Erythronium from my garden:
Ery. dens-canis 'Lilac Wonder'
 ''         ''          Mix several seedlings
 ''         ''          bed with some forms

[Gerry Webster]

Erythronium hybrid

This is a vigorous form which increases vegetatively quite fast. I would hazard a guess that  the parents are E. revolutum & E. californicum ‘White Beauty’, the flower colour & the divided style coming from the former & the vigour & the fairly slender filaments (compared with E. revolutum) from the latter. The fairly unexciting leaves are also reminiscent of ‘White Beauty’.

I’d be interested to hear what Ian & Ed think.

[The well-marked leaves on the bottom right are those of E.californicum just coming into flower]

[Maggi Young]

Ian and I just enjoying your pix now, Gerry. We have several of that ilk... certainly revolutum x either  White  Beauty or californicum... this gives the lovely markings inside the flower and the happy inclination to clump up.

[Gerry Webster]

Here some Erythronium from my garden:
Ery. dens-canis 'Lilac Wonder'
 ''         ''          Mix several seedlings
 ''         ''          bed with some forms

Dirk - that's a very impressive collection of E.dens-canis. I wish they grew as well for me.