Fritillaria 2010

[james willis]

I too have stenanthera in flower Luc, the first frit this season, but not a patch on your beauty  though.  At the moment the flowers are lurking in the heart of the flower but I hope the stem will elongate.  Mind you it has been bitterly cold this last week.

[TheOnionMan]

Chris, the F. ayakoana and F. muraiana are delicate beauties, are these two Japanese species related?  The flowers have a similarity, both white bells with thin red veins.

Luc, your F. stenanthera is a stunner two, interesting to get so many different and subtle color forms from one collection.  I love seeing all the Rhinopetalum types, although never tried growing them.

[chris]

Marc, I think they are related but I dont now much about them
Robin, it is'nt my F.stenatera but the wonderful plant of Luc, here two pix from my F.stenanthera also from seed and the first time flowering

[Gerry Webster]

Chris, the F. ayakoana and F. muraiana are delicate beauties, are these two Japanese species related?  The flowers have a similarity, both white bells with thin red veins.

There is an article on Japanese fritillaries by Martyn Rix in The Plantsman 2, 64-66 (1980). The painting by Joanna Langhorne, to which I referred above, is also reproduced here but unfortunately the plants portrayed  are incorrectly identified (they are correctly identified in Fritillaria).
I don't know anything about F. ayakoana but  F. muraiana is  a synonym of F. japonica  var. japonica &  F. koidzumiana of F. japonica var. koidzumiana.

[Alex]

On the subject of F. alburyana, can anyone shed any light on why the flowers on this abort every year for me? The plants are happy, even put out offsets but the flowers always make it to a good sized bud then wither or just fail to progress. They colour up so you can see it is actually alburyana, but in 4 years I've never had a proper flower, even when I kept it in the fridge for a longer dormancy.

Thanks for any advice,

Alex

[Regelian]

Luc,

that pot full of Fr. stenathera is simply wonderfull.  Great to see all the variation in a single foto.  You will be setting seed, now, won't you? 

[Lesley Cox]

A beautiful little plant Chris, very desirable.

I think Chloe's is elwesii too. My latakiensis is entirely brown, or more acurately, what we know as khaki, the colour of British and NZ army uniforms before they all became desert or jungle-coloured.

[Ragged Robin]

Robin, it is'nt my F.stenatera but the wonderful plant of Luc,

Sorry for the confusion, Chris, it was your F.muraiana that I was referring to but yours and Luc's pot full of Fr. stenathera are really outstandingly beautiful Fritillaria....

here two pix from my F.stenanthera also from seed and the first time flowering

and the accolades go on 

[Lesley Cox]

On the subject of F. alburyana, can anyone shed any light on why the flowers on this abort every year for me? The plants are happy, even put out offsets but the flowers always make it to a good sized bud then wither or just fail to progress. They colour up so you can see it is actually alburyana, but in 4 years I've never had a proper flower, even when I kept it in the fridge for a longer dormancy.

Thanks for any advice,

Alex

I've had this happen too Alex and just about wept for the loss of the single flower which was coming. Since then I have made sure the pot get heaps of water from mid winter on, or even earlier, as soon as roots can be expected (March here, say September for you). This means quite moist through winter so the drainage needs to be good. Now it flowers properly each year. Still just one bulb though and one flower. Probably some of Ian's bulb fertilizer wouldn't go amiss either.

[Mark Griffiths]

Hopefully I'm attaching a pic of the first frit out here, F. pluriflora. I have had this for well over 15 yrs, it arrived under another name, took a few years to flower and clearly was F. pluriflora. It has never divided and I used to remove the flower stalk. Past few years I have let it set seed, mainly sending it off to the Frit Group or AGS. I sowed some a year or so back and I have quite a few seedlings so it is quite a fertile little thing.

[Maggi Young]

Mark, your frit has a very good strong colour.... lovely!

[LucS]

Mark,
A terrific and excellent grown plant. Good to hear, and at the same time strange that this one plant sets good seed.

[Lesley Cox]

That is superb Mark, and as Luc says, great that the single bulb (clone) sets seed. So often they won't until they have company from different clones.

[Mark Griffiths]

I thought generally the Frits were self fertile? Perhaps of reflection only some have been setting seed. I notice they tend to attract queen wasps..but the pluriflora flowers too early for them generally.

[Lesley Cox]

Well I have several that have never set seed in spite of careful hand (but self) pollinaton.