Delphiniums from California
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 21 Jun 2003 10:59:33 PDT)

Dear Nan,

I have sent seed of some of these to Dell for a future BX so if you are not
a PBS member you may want to join. Also Ron Ratko has Delphinium seed in
his catalog and many of the seed exchanges do as well. I have gotten my
seed from NARGS, Cal Hort, Ron Ratko, and collected it in the wild. I
understand John is willing to share seed of that Delphinium if he collects
it and has enough to share.

Delphinium seed has a reputation for being short lived, but I haven't found
that to be true. The Delphinium species of California that are dormant in
the summer from my experience are best started in the fall. If you keep
moving them up to deeper pots you can sometimes get them to bloom in the
same season. Otherwise usually the next. There are mountain Delphiniums
that do their thing after the snow melts. Many of them are quite amazing
and obviously need moisture at a different time than the coastal ones. I
mostly have avoided those and concentrated on the ones I expect to be
happier in my wet winters, dry summers. I haven't lost any of them I grow
that I have left in containers to spend the summer mostly dry when dormant.
In the ground the loses have been much greater.

Mary Sue