Geophytic Delphinium
Mary Sue Ittner (Sun, 25 Jan 2004 16:40:26 PST)

Dear Cynthia,

I'm not really an expert on Delphinium. I've just been growing my native
versions, and concentrating on avoiding the mountain ones that will need
summer water since I don't water much in summer.

I have a book called Texas Flowers in Natural Colors my mother gave me and
it has three Delphiniums listed, but doesn't really tell you very much
about them, not even if they are annual or perennial. It mentions
Delphinium albescens, Delphinium carolinianum (the one you have) and D.
vimineum. So I have no idea whether these are geophytes are not.

Delphiniums have this reputation for having seed that is short lived. That
may be true of some of them, but I haven't found that to be true of the
California species. I usually save my seed and start it in the fall after
the weather has cooled and it comes up well. It also comes up well in the
pots where it has reseeded when I haven't gotten it in time and I see new
plants in the ground where I have planted them out as well. The seed falls
in the pots, but doesn't germinate until winter. I treat it more like a
perennial and that is after the seedlings look well established I
transplant one of two each into a cup. Mike Mace suggested using plastic
cups you can make holes in since they are so much deeper than 2 inch pots
long ago for starting bulb seed. They work well for Delphiniums at the
transplant stage and are relatively cheap and will last two or three
seasons before they start splitting. We buy them in large quantities at
Costco.

Some of my species grow slowly and may stay in the cups for a year or two,
but if they are growing well I continue to transplant them to larger
containers. If the roots are filling the container they grow faster with
more room. When they start to die back with the warmer weather I move them
into the shade and leave them, occasionally giving them water (maybe three
or four times during their dormant period. Once it starts raining again I
let nature take over. I've found by experiment that I have better luck
transplanting them out and having them return if they are a good sized
plant than small seedlings. I'm not sure why this is, maybe it has to do
with predators. Since Delphiniums are supposed to be poisonous do you
suppose that means gophers wouldn't like them? It certainly doesn't stop
the snails and birds.

When this has been discussed before Shawn Pollard who is a member of this
list mentioned a couple. I have his quotes which I saved, but hopefully
he'll post again about this genus.

From Jan. 1998:
"There's a pretty, white plains larkspur that grows throughout Texas and
dies back to
tuberous roots during the summer. Here in Arizona, we have a number of
geophytic spring-flowering desert species and summer-flowering mountain
species." Could that be D. albescens which is described as resembling
rabbit faces (white tinged green and purple) in my book?

From Aug 2000 when he was living in Alpine, Texas:
"D. virescens wootonii is definitely geophytic with big, tuberous roots. It is
one of the few spring-blooming anything that does well here. It combines
beautifully with Stachys byzantina."

So you might look for some of those and hopefully Shawn will add to this
discussion. Maybe some of the California foothill species might work too
where it would be warmer in summer than here on the coast. I hope this
helps. Let us know how you get along.

Mary Sue