Brodiaea--TOW
Rodger Whitlock (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."