Tiny bulbs

Kenneth Hixson khixson@nu-world.com
Thu, 19 Feb 2004 01:00:22 PST
Hi All:
	Scilla bifolia, blue, opened its' first flowers today alongside
a near white Cyclamen coum.  Both are on the north side of the trunk
of a dawn redwood, so the Scilla would flower earlier elsewhere.
Chionodoxa, Scilla, and Chionoscilla are so common that it may not be
worth mentioning for Jane's list.  I do wish these were more reliably
available.  I've twice ordered Scilla gigantea alba from a source that 
imports from Holland, and both times they flowered blue, which I already
have.

Barbara L. Weintraub wrote:
>Another hard-to-find native is Leucocrinum montanum. 
	This "sand Lily" was one of the first things I ordered from Siskiyou
Rare Plants, and was disappointed every year when it flowered.  Although it
had good broad petals, the flower texture was so thin you could almost see 
through the petals.  I've always assumed there were better forms/better 
substanced flowers.  Claude Barr, in "Jewels of the Plains" p106, says 
"The flower may be little more than an inch or all of two inches wide, the 
lobes, or petals, often straplike.  The finest forms, however, have quite 
wide petals."  Thus I assume it varies and selected forms might be nicer.  
FWIW, he also says "Several thick, moisture-storing roots, spreading from 
a tiny crown".  Thus this is not a bulb, corm, etc.
	I would appreciate hearing from others who grow it, and can comment
on the substance of the flowers.  I'd probably try to replace it if I could
find good substanced flowers.  This probably would rate as "cute" rather than
"exquisite".  It should be a good trough plant, if the trough could dry out
during the summer.  Mine seemed to tolerate our wet winters fairly well, but 
died out after several years.

Ken Z7 western Oregon


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