Brodiaea--TOW

Rodger Whitlock totototo@mail.pacificcoast.net
Sat, 21 Jun 2003 00:42:47 PDT
On 18 Jun 03 at 7:20, Mary Sue Ittner wrote:

> Brodiaea coronaria is found in the hills of northern and central
> California, usually in meadows, often in clay, gravely alkaline soil
> and extends north to Oregon and Washington. Flowers are blue-violet,
> blue-purple, pink-purple or rose and blooming occurs from May to
> July. ...The form I grow hasn't increased much and doesn't
> usually set seed so I probably need to grow this from seed.

B. coronaria also gets into British Columbia and is reasonably common 
if you know where to look. In my experience, it favors slopes 
with good sun, which is really no surprise. Ours are usually 
blue-purple, and multiply in a reasonable way in the garden. Seed is 
readily set, though not in large quantities.

> Are there any others in this group besides Diana who grow Brodiaea
> who will share their experiences?

A good ten years ago, my good friend Adolf Ceska, who knows where
everything grows around here, took me to the one-and-only Vancouver
Island site for Brodiaea howellii. I collected a few small corms, but
have to report that the results were ~not~ a success in the garden.
My collection seems to be a sterile (possibly triploid) clone that
multiplies alarmingly but very rarely flowers -- this year I have
one flowering stem amidst the hundreds of leaves.

-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"To co-work is human,
to cow-ork, bovine."


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