Dear All, It appears that not many of us must grow this genus. I hope that the discussion this week will have made some of you more interested in trying them. It sounds like there are a number of people hooked on Triteleia and Brodiaea should be just as successful. As for sources of bulbs Telos Rare Bulbs and our own Diana Chapman sells them. Also it is always a good idea to check out Jane McGary's surplus list each year because you could find some listed there. Far West Bulb Farm bought out the Robinetts. I have never ordered from them and they did not respond to my invitation to join our list, but they do have quite a lot of California native bulbs listed on their web site. http://californianativebulbs.com/ You see seed listed in various seed exchanges and the PBS BX too. My experience with seed exchanges is that the seed listed could be right or not. You can get something very wonderful or something you already have. Many of us continue to sing the praises of Ron Ratko and Northwest Native Seed. 17595 Vierra Canyon Rd #172, Prunedale, CA 93907 For eleven years he has been offering wild collected seed from the Western United States. His last catalog had 39 different collections of Alliums listed, 6 Brodiaeas, 37 Calochortus, 5 Dichelostemmas, 17 Erythroniums, 14 Fritillarias, 21 Iris, 14 Lilium, 8 Triteleia, and 2 Zigadenus. Of course he has seeds of many other plants as well. In the 1998 catalog I ordered seed of Brodiaea terrestris ssp. kernensis. I started it in the fall of 1999 and it started blooming for the first time a week or so ago. He described it thus: Evans Flat, Greenhorn Mtns., Kern Co., Ca. 6050 feet (1844 meters). A slightly more robust form that the following collection with the 6+ flowered umbels on 4-6" scapes with 1 inch flowers. Open gravelly flats in a marginally loamy soil. Montane forest. I would expect this plant therefore to be relatively hardy. It doesn't look like a Brodiaea terrestris to me at all. It looks much more like B. jolonensis to me. That species is not supposed to be found in this area and has a relatively limited range in coastal southern California to Baja. So I am just calling it sp. for now. It is another short one, but I think the flowers are quite beautiful. Mine only have three flowers in an umbel however. Did he actually see these flowers (he described them by size so he must have) or did he arrive on the seed and expect them to be the species described because that is what you'd expect to find there? Could this be a different species of is the range of the other broader than we think? I am reminded that Georgie Robinett told me when you are plant exploring you see all kinds of interesting variations that don't fit in any of your keys. Regardless I am happy to have this plant and it is one of the joys of growing plants from seed. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… Before we leave this topic surely there must be some others in our group who grow Brodiaeas who will tell us which ones are their favorites. Mary Sue
