Camassia (was On trilliums and more)
Jane McGary (Mon, 05 Jun 2006 11:12:08 PDT)

Matt wrote, I do love C. leichtlinii

Some people, including garden writers, regard this plant as ugly. It is a
large form, up to a meter tall, with semidouble greenish cream flowers. I
think to look good, it has to form a large colony, as mine now have. One
problem is that the flowers close up at night and in dim weather, so they
don't appear at their best except on sunny days.

Camassia is a neglected genus in the garden, even here where it is native.
The leaves, like those of Colchicum, are large and floppy and die away
unattractively in midsummer. One particularly good form is the population
of C. quamash that grows around Puget SOund in Washington; it has been
distributed as seed under the name "Puget Blue." It's quite large and deep
in color, and comes true from seed here. 'Orion', a Dutch C. quamash
selection, is a dwarf form only about 10 in/25 cm tall, dark blue. 'Blue
Melody', also Dutch, has attractively cream-margined leaves and mid-blue
flowers; it's also short-growing. There is a good deep blue form of C.
leichtlinii growing in ditches around here, but to my shame I have not
brought it into the garden; I must remember to throw a shovel in the car
one day soon and dig some. The more typical C. leichtlinii (from which the
double form discussed above is derived) has cream flowers and grows more to
the south. I also grow C. cusickii from eastern Oregon, but its pale
gray-blue flowers don't please me much.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA