Brodiaea--TOW
Jane McGary (Thu, 19 Jun 2003 09:57:39 PDT)

Mary Sue listed some of the rarer Brodiaea species she does not grow and
asked who was growing them besides Diana Chapman.

species, endemic to >California, is found in clay gravelly soil in
grasslands and foothill woodlands in the hot foothills of >the Sacramento
Valley. Flowers are pale bluish to lilac with narrow petals and the tube
pinched >in just below the petals. The staminodes are erect, white, held
close to the stamens, inrolled >with a notched tip. Another short species,
this one blooms from March to April. This is the one >that I have not been
successful with but Diana grows.

I have been growing this for about 4 years and find that it flowers well
here in a bulb frame that is covered November through mid-March. It is in
my usual soil of sand, pumice, and loam and is fertilized with liquid
fertilizer on the same schedule as other bulbs. Diana mentioned that it
inhabits seasonally very wet sites, so probably it enjoys the very wet
winter conditions in this particular frame, which I reserve for plants that
tolerate more winter moisture and occasional dampness in summer.

If I can be forgiven for transgressing species boundaries here, and in
reply to Diana's comments on height, I'll just mention there is a
stupendously large Triteleia peduncularis flowering in the bulb frame now
-- a self-sown one that has pulled its bulb down deep in the plunge medium.
It seems that in general, the deeper the bulbs of this group can get, the
larger the inflorescence; this one, with its long pedicels, is about 14
inches (35 cm) in diameter on a scape 24 inches (60 cm) tall. Maybe that is
one reason for the lovely huge Brodiaea elegans Mary Sue is growing in a
large, deep pot with, as I recall, a lemon tree. Of course, reaching over
surrounding vegetation has an effect too. I sometimes wonder, also, if some
of my bulbs grow taller because of the lower light conditions in northern
Oregon as compared to California and the Mediterranean. On the other hand,
I seem to have more compact plants than are typical for English growers,
which may reflect light levels or the fact that my plants are generally
grown "harder," experiencing lower winter temperatures and probably higher
temperatures in summer.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon