Asphodelus acaulis

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:44:19 PST
Jim McKenney wrote
>  One of my gardening friends acquired a plant of Asphodelus acaulis 
> from Jane McGary; it grew well in its new home, and it eventually 
> appeared at the plant exchange of our local NARGS chapter. That's 
> when I acquired my start. ...Jane mentions in the wiki account that 
> the crowns sometimes die after flowering. My plant has only a 
> single crown. I'll be devastated if it dies.

I think the secondary crowns aren't necessarily apparent above ground 
when the big central crown is flowering. I have two big plants in 
flower here now, and I expect I'll find two or three new crowns have 
formed to the sides of each when I lift them this summer to get them 
out of the mesh basket in which I transferred them from the old bulb 
frames to the new bulb house. The storage root system is similar to 
that of Dahlia. Other Asphodelus are similar (though bigger).

The color is what is called, in regard to fabrics anyway, as "peach 
pink," though I've never understood that as peaches are much yellower 
(if they're not white peaches). A good-sized inflorescence can have 
as many as 20 individual blossoms, clustered close to the ground.

I got this plant as a single crown from Monocot Nursery in the 
mid-1990s. Mine haven't ever set viable seed but I will try to 
hand-pollinate it this year. Possibly I won't succeed, as I have just 
the one clone.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA




More information about the pbs mailing list