Erythronium 2009

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Actually they're planted at the front of the house and the only other Erythroniums flowering at the same time were all at the back... so I don't think they'd be hybrids.. 

As you said - this whole thread if very interesting. 

[Zdenek]

Ed,
here my first Erythronium,
Erythronium caucasicum

I am not sure that this plant is E. dens/canis. Here is Erythronium caucasicum from my garden. Is it right?

[Zdenek]

Some of my Erythroniums are flowering.

You have nice Erythroniums Hans. Have they names? I guess #1 and 5 is white sibiricum and #3 is japonicum but the others?
I enclose a picture taken yesterday of sibiricum ssp. altaicum originally from Janis. This is my earliest Erythronium.
Have a nice spring
Göte

I see that it is amost the same as mine. So that I have E. altaicum?

[jomowi]

Aaron, no the latest  americanum I received were not from you but a prominant grower and former club president in Scotland.  The two Erythroniums you sent were umbilicatum one of which has flowered properly this year and rostratum which is still recovering.  Both are in plunged basket pots so I can keep an eye on them.

The point I wanted to make that stolons/ non stolons seem to be reversible in both directions depending on conditions.

Brian Wilson

[gote]

Another fact to note is that once they start to form flowering sized bulbs they seem to continue to do so and produce less stolons.

Fritillaria camtschatkensis (Blackish form) behaves in a similar way in my place. Mine are all of the same clone but behave in two distinct ways. Mature bulbs are 2.5-4cm in diameter and will send up a flowering spike. They will do that year after year. However they will also send out a few thin stolons with a miniature bulb (0.5-1 cm) at the end. This bulb will send up one leaf and a new stolon and I have these one-leafers all over the place. When they have found a place to their liking they will start to bulk up and turn into the flowering stage. It sems that the likable places are more nutritious and slightly lighter. This year the best ones seem to come in the middle of a Meconopsis bed. That area is hig in humus.

Göte


 

[jomowi]

Another Erythronium which sends out stolons and creeps about for me is E. albidum.  But it also has one or two flowers each year and this year has even set a seed pod.  Does anyone else have experience with this species?

Brian Wilson

[Guff]

Great info everyone.

For an experiment, I will dig up 100 americanum when they start to die down.

I will start a new bed/spot, remove all the soil down to 10 inches and replace with leaf compost. I will then place the bulbs at different soil depth levels

I was thinking I would start at 5.5 inches below the surface.

25 at 5.5 inch
25 at 5 inch
25 at 4.5 inch
25 at 4. inch

Or should I try 1 inch difference. I thought maybe 6 inches deep would be too deep? It will take a few years to see the results, but I thought it would be interesting experiment.

[Maggi Young]

It seems you are well placed to experiment with them, Guff. I'm wondering if I'll lift some single leaf-ers and pot them in very rich compost to see if that works ?

[Afloden]

Brian,
 
 E. albidum is just as bad in behavior as E. americanum. Most clones do nothing more than send out runners and make single leaves. An area in eastern Kansas had acres of this but in most years I could never find more than a dozen or so flowers. E. mesochoreum is a far better species with some forms fragrant like Lilium speciosum. It is does not make runners and, for me, flowers every year.

 I came across a hillside with many seedpods (E. umbilicatum) on the ground today. The leaves were completely gone, but the pod and stem were still present. The capsules were just beginning to deteriorate. I will take a photo of a capsule tomorrow.

 Aaron Floden

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It seems you are well placed to experiment with them, Guff. I'm wondering if I'll lift some single leaf-ers and pot them in very rich compost to see if that works ?

Might be an interesting experiment Maggi !

[Joakim B]

Is this behavior of sending out stolon a way to "cover as much land" as possible and then when tis is done flower? So would just cramping have an effect? What happens if one puts them in a long pot without a bottom so that they are cramped at the sides or at least they will be after some time? I do not know if anyone has tried this or similar style? I know Ian Y. often has company to his bulbs so that they behave better. Not sure if he has said anything about this.
Guff nice experiment, maybe playing with the amount of fertilization as well in giving half of the 25 some extra and the others none? Maybe the leaf mold is so rich that this doe s not have any effect but I do not know.
Having just a few pagodas that most of are flowering does not make much possibilities to do experiments.

All the best and this is very interesting thread.
Kind regards
Joakim edit later spelling my name correctly

[Maggi Young]

It seems you are well placed to experiment with them, Guff. I'm wondering if I'll lift some single leaf-ers and pot them in very rich compost to see if that works ?

Might be an interesting experiment Maggi !

Well, yes, Luc, but it never worked before!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

...oops....

[gote]

Another Erythronium which sends out stolons and creeps about for me is E. albidum.  But it also has one or two flowers each year and this year has even set a seed pod.  Does anyone else have experience with this species?

Brian Wilson

I have one that has been sending up two leaves and one flower for at least five years. No stolon, no seed. Only the same plant year after year.
G.öte

[Afloden]

Gote,

 Then your plant is likely E. mesochoreum. Albidum is a weed, more so than E. americanum.

 To confirm this when yours flowers, E. mesochoreum does not reflex its tepals completely, the leaves have less to no mottling and tend to be U-shaped in cross section, and the capsule, if it ever makes one, is umbilicate vs apiculate, rounded, or possibly indented. The capsule in E. albidum is held erect and that of E. mesochoreum rests on the ground. Also, E. albidum is tetraploid and E. mesochoreum is diploid. Like the eastern yellow species, the eastern white species are very similar, the diploids are better plants all around, flower yearly, and they even share similar capsule morphology.

 Aaron Floden