pbs Digest, Vol 66, Issue 17
Adam Fikso (Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:42:32 PDT)

Well-stated Jim, and thanks for the Scheepers recommendation. There's a lot
of wholesale slop out there, e.g., a picture for A. belladonna coupled with
text for Lycoris squamigera--over and over again. Wrote to them, they
argued, wrote again, argument, wrote a third time, they took the ad out.
Now they've changed the picture with a better form of A. belladonna, for the
text of L. squamigera.

They deal with volume and only pretend to care about individual consumers.
They talk politely but don't change what they're doing. So buy from them
only when you have to (they do control lots of market choices), and
patronize the smaller more reliable dealers, but they're stuck too, because
they have to buy from the big brokers. The Scheepers recommendation is one I
needed. I've noticed that Fritillaria persica has tended to go sour in the
last 10 years, and I still don't have a good replacement. I have 3 bulbs
that some up reliably with no hint of any flower capability, much less the
'Adiyaman' that's pictured in its dark candle-like glory. I finally got a
few good F. michailowskyii with expanded and wide-open mouths to the bells,
but they seem to be sterile.

Some of this is perhaps not accidental. I understand it to be part of the
some Dutch bulb growers' efforts to control the market, exemplified in part
by irradiation of cut flower pollens (e.g., Alstroemeria) to make sure that
it's not used for hybridization of plants outside of their control

I understand it, but I don't like it.

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: Fritillaria imperialis (Jim McKenney)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:18:54 -0400
From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Fritillaria imperialis
To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <000101c8e6b8$01d5aa10$2f01a8c0@Library>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Good luck with that plan, Jim, and be sure to let us know how it turns
out.

I?ve had my share of bad experiences with poorly handled bulbs of
Fritillaria imperialis over the years. I?ve received dead bulbs, crushed
bulbs, dry mummified bulbs ? what a bother. Requests for replacement bulbs
from some of these dealers were promptly fulfilled with more dead, crushed
or mummified bulbs. One supplier simply ignored my plight after the first
replacement ? evidently they thought their responsibility was to supply a
replacement, alive or dead.

However, there is one supplier who has never let me down: the John
Scheepers
Co. Over the years (I?ve been buying from them on and off for close to
fifty years) I have occasionally received a bad bulb, but requests for
replacements were promptly honored with live bulbs. The Fritillaria
imperialis they sent in the fall of 2006 were packed in small cardboard
boxes and cushioned with excelsior. The bulbs were heavy, blemish free and
had incipient roots; they went on to grow and bloom. What more can you
ask?

What I?m trying to say is that my experience suggests that it isn?t
necessary to get bulbs in August. Even if I could get freshly dug bulbs
now,
I certainly don?t think it would be a good idea to plant a bulb of this
species into the damp, hot soil of a Maryland summer. Missouri can't be
much
different.

North Europeans are in a hurry to plant these bulbs in August because
their
fall and early winter are apt to be dull, wet and cold: hardly good
weather
to be out digging and hardly good conditions for plants trying to get
rooted
before the onset of winter.

In my experience, properly stored bulbs from a supplier who knows what he
is
doing give impeccable first year results. The rest is up to you.

I?m posting this response to both the PBS forum and Alpine-L.

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871? North, 77.09829? West, USDA
zone
7, where we just had an improbably late and successful lily show.
My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/
BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/

Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS
Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/

Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/

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End of pbs Digest, Vol 66, Issue 17
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