Orange Flowered Bulb Question
Rodger Whitlock (Fri, 19 Mar 2004 16:46:37 PST)

On 15 Mar 04 at 17:34, James Waddick wrote:

I have plants grown from seed that came to me as Eranthis hyemalis
'Aurantiaca', from the (English) Hardy Plant Society about 15 years
ago.

If you are an eranthis fancier, it's fun, but don't think for one
second that you will get a bright orange flower, at least not with
the strain I have. What you get is a flower that is an orange-tinged
yellow, something like the beaten yolk of a free-range egg or
perhaps a chrome yellow. The normal form is a slightly green-tinged
acid yellow.

It might be that selective breeding could produce a deeper orange. I
can't be bothered fussing to that degree.

Unfortunately, my "orange" eranthis have been invaded by normal
seedlings and I am forever forgetting to mark the "orange" ones in
order to collect seed.

I cannot tell you if the cultivar name 'Aurantiaca' is old and valid,
a quasi-botanical epithet, or what.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island