Paige asked >Fritillaria maximowiczii is blooming in my greenhouse. With its green and >maroon chequers, is this frit from NE China and Siberia rare in cultivation, >or do people just not think it's worth photographing?
As far as I can tell, it is rare in cultivation. Most East Asian Fritillaria species are, except for F. camschatcensis and a couple of CHinese ones that have become widely distributed (often under the wrong names) recently. One problem in obtaining them is that most (all?) of them do not have a pronounced dormant period when the bulbs can safely be shipped, nor do they tend to set viable seed in cultivation. I have a few and find that they do better outdoors than under cover. I'm not sure whether F. yuminensis belongs in this group but it does have the non-dormancy characteristic. As for green-and-brown Fritillaria species, which John Grimshaw once memorably called "frog-coloured frits," they give me fits every year trying to verify the names under which I received the seeds. Flowering for the first time this year in the new bulb house is one received as F. mutabilis, which is a very large, handsome thing. I can't enumerate how many different-looking plants I have under the name F. graeca, with various ssp. epithets attached. F. crassifolia is also quite varied but at least its leaves all look the same. I'm eagerly awaiting the first flowering of three plants of F. rhodia, which must be the smallest species in the genus--a BIO (Botanical Interest Only) item for sure. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA So far this year, only three days on which the high temperature reached 60 F (16 C). Very nice for F. camtschatcensis. _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
