Fritillaria hybrids
Jane McGary (Sun, 24 Apr 2005 14:56:06 PDT)

At 11:15 AM 4/24/2005 -0700, Harold Koopowitz wrote:

I don't know of any Frit hybrids that are offered commercially. There are a
few named natural stable hybrids, such as F. x kittaniae, and some
authorities consider F. eastwoodiae a stable natural hybrid between F.
micrantha and F. recurva. My possible purdyi x biflora is so large and
flowering so young that it may be a useful nursery item, especially if its
vigor includes the copious production of offsets -- a characteristic of
biflora but not of the rare purdyi. Diana Chapman wrote me recently that
some F. liliacea seedling bulbs I sent her include two individuals that
seem to have F. agrestis as a parent; both of those species are rare and
endangered, and Diana said that wild hybrids had been reported in the past.

As interesting as these hybrids are, especially if they are better garden
plants than their parents, most people who grow frits are intent on having
the true species, so I am rather embarrassed to have sent out possibly
mixed seed. However, I hope that anyone who grows exchange seed from garden
sources is aware of this possibility and verifies the seedlings before
passing on their seeds in turn.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon