Muscari and Bellevalia, was What is this bulb's name?
Jane McGary (Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:59:05 PDT)

Muscari paradoxum (note gender) has been a synonym of Bellevalia
paradoxa. According to Brian Mathew's older book :Dwarf Bulbs", it is
"smaller than the other two blue-flowered Bellevalia species" with
"flowers in a short dense raceme, pale to deep blue, more or less
bell-shaped with short perianth lobes edged with yellow." B.
pycnantha does not have the yellow or white margins. It is a fairly
stout plant.

A Muscari hybrid is being sold by Dutch growers under the name
Bellevalia pycnantha. It is obviously not that plant, and it's
invasive. I got cheated into buying some because I thought it was a
great bargain for B. pycnantha, which increases quite slowly.

There is also a plant that arrived here under the name Bellevalia
dubia, which is very pretty and has a bicolored inflorescence with
the upper (sterile) flowers brilliant blue. I have two Bellevalia
species (or maybe just one) that have extremely long pedicels; one is
called B. longistyla and I don't remember, offhand, what the other
one is labeled. All of these are just starting to flower now --
they're a little later than most of the Muscari I have.

Dell asked about Bellevalia forniculata. Seed is usually available
from the Archibalds. It takes a long time to grow to flowering size
and doesn't increase vegetatively as far as I can see. It is indeed a
beautiful "meconopsis blue," but (as with the Anemone biflora we
discussed recently) there is the matter of scale: the individual
flowers are rather small. It's an alpine plant of moist meadows,
apparently, and I find it does best here in the lowlands grown in a
raised but uncovered bed (Dell, that is the middle "frame" you saw
here between the two ranges of covered frames). It might do better in
the Rockies or eastern Canada.

I have a lot of trouble managing high-alpine bulbs, but am pleased to
see Fritillaria cirrhosa looking quite good this year. I keep it on
my covered deck in a plunged pot, rather dry in winter. F.
camschatcensis is also good this year.

If you get a really huge Muscari with violet flowers, it may be M.
dionysicum, which has appeared here and there under a couple of names
in recent years.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA

Jim wrote: