Veratrum offsets
Jane McGary (Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:39:30 PDT)
Kathleen asked,
At 02:08 PM 9/7/2011, you wrote:
From Jane's comment:
it took about 7 years for
the native species to grow from sowing to flowering in my former
garden. It's better to propagate them from offsets, which at least in
V. californicum are numerous.
So Jane, how big should the offsets be? I am envisioning a muddy dig
on the Columbia River to extract a few.
Usually in my plants the main central "bulb" is about the size of an
elongated grapefruit, with offsets of various sizes down to about lemon size.
Digging them is not easy as they tend to be deep and very tenacious.
Be careful not to break them and don't try to overwinter them in
pots, put them right into the ground. Good luck!
Jane