Fritillaria pallidiflora

[alan jones]

In a recent bulb log, Ian pictured Fritillaria pallidiflora, with lots of self-sown seedlings coming-up around it, as in nature.  I have had success with two frits in the garden: meleagris and pontica.  Meleagris is a favourite because it is not only such an attractive plant but is easy-going and produces prodigious quantities of seed to ensure its survival.  I have spent a lot of cash buying in bulbs of other frit species for the garden but have never been successful.  I do not plan to spend another penny on what seems to be a lost cause.  Which brings me back to F.pallidiflora...I have a fine pan of handsome plants raised from seed sown in 06.  I'd like to evacuate them from the alpine house [for which they are really too tall] to the garden.  I'd welcome any cultivation tips to put me on the road to success...and glory...in what may turn out to be a challenging environment for them.

[Maggi Young]

I wouldn't think your  Liverpool garden  in would be too tough on Frit. pallidiflora, Alan.
It is really much better suited as a garden plant than a plant under glass, because, as you have found, it is of a stature that is more appropriate to the garden.

If I had not seen it growing outside the glasshouses in the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, I might have been dubious about its capacity to grow outside in the UK...  but I have since seen it in all sorts of gardens  in Scotland, some quite cold and damp, and it seems to manage well enough. We have it in as  many spots in our garden here in Aberdeen as we can and it seems content in sun or shade. (Or as we have this year - mostly shade and damp!  )
It may take a year to settle down outside but I would certainly make the move.  If it tries to grow very early in the year you could always put a cloche on it if really bad weather was expected, but we have not done so.
It is a super plant and makes a very striking picture in the garden.

[DaveM]

I have similar experience. I too used to grow it in the glasshouse but have now grown it outside for many years where it seems to take all thrown at it weatherwise. It has always self-seeded itself here. Been flowering well this year when many of my frits in the grrenhouse have not done so well.

Other frits that do well for me in the garden here in East Lothian are: FF meleagris, pyrenaica, davisii, hermonis amana, acmopetala

[Gerry Webster]

Other frits that do well for me in the garden here in East Lothian are: FF meleagris, pyrenaica, davisii, hermonis amana, acmopetala

For a long time I've thought that frits do better in Scotland than in the S of England. I've had all the above, plus FF. thunbergii & pudica,  growing outside here but with the exception of F. meleagris, they only lasted 3 or 4 years.

[alan jones]

Thanks Maggi...and Dave M.  Valuable advice.  I will comply...as soon as the bulbs go dormant.  It just happens, Dave M, that I also have three of the frits you mentioned as suitable for outside planting: pyrenaica, hermonis amana, and acmopetala, all from seed in the alpine house.  I'll plant them out,too, freeing-up a lot of space.  Grateful to you both, Alan J.