Easy Bulbs

The remarks about sowing bulb seeds directly in the garden got me to
thinking. I have some bulbs that seed around without my having to touch
the seeds. The following are all in my woodland garden.

Chionodoxa lucilae (or whatever they are calling it this week) of course is
notorious for seeding itself all over the place.

Corydalis solida also seeds itself anywhere it is the least bit happy to be
growing. I had volunteer hybrids between 'Beth Evans' and 'George P.
Baker' in bloom this year. Some were a vivid red, one a rich violet purple
color. I really should have marked the purple one.

Corydalis angustifolia 'Georgian White' from Janis Ruksans is also seeding
itself around. I'm very pleased to see this happening. It blooms quite
early, and it is a nice pure white.

Eranthis cilicica is seeding itself very slowly, but a few stray seedlings
bloomed this spring. The original bulbs are gone, as far as I can
tell. The Chionodoxa, the Corydalis, and the Eranthis have all finished
flowering for this year.

Fritillaria pallidifolia seems to have seeded itself a little bit. They
are just now finishing up blooming for the year.

Hymenocallis occidentalis seems to have had 2 or 3 seeds survive sometime
in recent years. I try to collect all the seeds of this species to grow in
pots. The volunteers are not up to flowering size yet, but nothing else
growing in that area has leaves like the Hymenocallis. H. occidentalis is
found native in the southwestern-most tip of Indiana and in southern
Illinois along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It is however very
gratifying to see a few volunteer seedlings growing around my bloom size
bulbs of occidentalis here in central Indiana. These will not bloom until
around August.

Trillium are native to this area, but T. cuneatum is not. I seem to have a
couple seedlings growing not far from my little group of T. cuneatum. They
have not gotten up to 3-leaf stage yet, so they are several years from
blooming.

Trillium nivale and T. recurvatum are both native to parts of Indiana, so
it's not surprising that they seem to be seeding around a little bit as
well. T. recurvatum is in full bloom right now while nivale bloomed about
a month ago.

Other local wildflowers seed themselves readily, including Dicentra
cucullaris (Dutchman's Breeches), Claytonia virginica (Spring Beauty), and
Polygonatum biflorum (Solomon's Seal). I like this.

Several non-native iris species seem to seed themselves around too,
especially Iris tectorum and Iris setosum. I haven't tried to figure out
if any of the volunteers are hybrids, but I wouldn't be surprised if they
were. I have not noticed the native Iris cristata seeding itself, but my
plants have spread into nice patches, and they are in bloom right now.

None of these are so prolific as to suggest they might become invasive.

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA