Vegetative Erythronium propagation

John Grimshaw j.grimshaw@virgin.net
Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:08:05 PDT
I think it is generally the case that bulbous plants in natural habitats are 
much less likely to multiply vegetatively than they are in cultivation, 
perhaps due to increased competition for resources, predation, etc. I 
recently visited the largest British population of Fritillaria meleagris 
(millions of plants - see my blog) and it was very evident that the majority 
of flowering plants were singletons, rather than clumps, and that scapes 
with two flowers are very rare. In the garden, by contrast, bulbs planted 3 
yrs ago, in the lawn, are already forming small clumps and many stems have 
two flowers. That is one example, but it is rare to see what a gardener 
would consider to be a 'good clump' of any bulb in the wild and why (for 
horticultural purposes) it's important to select for clumping as a valuable 
trait in a seedling population.

John Grimshaw

Visit John Grimshaw's Garden Diary
http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/

Dr. John M. Grimshaw
Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL53 9NP

Tel. 01242 870567



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