Fritillaria 2012

[Gerry Webster]

Gerry,
Is that one pink or brown?

The colour of the flower in the photo is fairly accurate (the leaves are more glaucous - very grey in fact). I would call the flower colour 'puce' - a  pinkish- purplish-brownish colour.

Beautiful Gerry, 

Thank you Ron.

[Paul T]

Lovely, Gerry.  I love how large the flower is proportionally.  Great colour too.

Thanks for the extra info.

[Graham Catlow]

I bought these Fritillaria bucharica ‘Giant’ as dormant bulbs last Spring and they grew well.
However, only one surfaced this year and as you can see from the photos it is looking decidedly sick.
I thought I had better investigate and the results are what you see in the other photos. No growth on the remaining bulbs and possibly rot at the root bases. The growing one had a root system that looked healthy but there weren’t many roots. No root eating pests were found in the compost.

They were kept frost free in the winter and I followed Ian Y’s watering regime.

Any thoughts??

Probably my fault I expect.

What do I do now?

[ronm]

What mix of compost did you use Graham?

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Ron,
It is a JI No2 with added leaf mould and sharp sand. Moisture retentive but well drained.

[ronm]

You watered when exactly Graham?

[Gerry Webster]

Graham - may I suggest you improve the drainage? I use a mix of  2JI:1 grit (6mm):1 perlite in terracotta pots. They are kept in an open sand plunge, so get whatever the heavens deliver.

[ronm]

Dont you think though Gerry, that getting the roots going in Autumn / Early winter may be the issue here? As well as drainage?

[Gerry Webster]

I don't know Ron. I rely on rain to do the job.

Edit:  A further thought Graham: I wonder if the bulbs were damaged by winter cold? Were the pots plunged?

[Graham Catlow]

I watered them at the begining of October and kept them moist from there on as I did with all my others. No problems with the others - which are nothing difficult.
Whatever I do it will have to be simple - no plunge beds etc. They are in a terracotta pot.

Are they dead?

[Maggi Young]

no   there's hope!
will get Ian to put in his three ha'porth  ;)later....

[Ian Y]

Graham

plant the bulbs back into just moist compost and with a bit of luck they will still survive and have enough resources to make new all be it smaller bulbs for next year.
The danger will be from wet rot attacking the bulbs treat them with some sulphur and scarape away any areas infected by wet rot until you find healthy bulb.

Why this happened is not so easy to work out but obviously something prevented the roots from forming. I have Frit bucharica in flower just now and it has never been damaged by the cold and we are not frost free. I wonder if being frost free could have made things worse and caused rot root.

There are obvious signs of fungal attack on the leaf growth you show but that is more likely to be secondary and cause by the plant suffering from lack of roots.

[Graham Catlow]

Thank you to all of you for your imput. I think the general consensus is that I may have had them too wet so will add more grit to my compost and take more care with my watering regime next winter.

Thanks again.

Graham

[Paul T]

Graham,

Why frost free?  I grow bucharica here (a single bulb, never multiplied in the decade I've had it... unfortunately) outside and if definitely gets frost without a problem.  Even if the bulbs to not survive intact, hopefully you would get the scaling effect and get some small bulbs form on the scales anyway.  At least that way all would not be lost.  Now if you can work out how to get them to multiply naturally I would be very happy.  I love this species, it flowers every year for me, but I've only ever seen it the once and still only have the one.  I've never asked Marcus in Tasmania about it though, so perhaps I need to find a second clone and hopefully get seed from it.

Good luck with sorting yours out.  You certainly shouldn't lose them all by the look of it, at the very least bulblets should form off the scales.

[John Aipassa]

minuta in the garden