Tecophilaea Cyanocrocus
Jane McGary (Sat, 03 Sep 2011 09:55:15 PDT)

At 01:46 PM 9/2/2011, you wrote:

They're so expensive because (a) they don't produce "numerous"
offsets -- I would say two offsets per bulb in a year is the most
I've seen here -- but mostly because they are written about in
horticultural literature in such a way as to weave a mystique around
the species, so growers can charge whatever they want for them. (Cf.
Galanthus reginae-olgae.) The flowers are very lovely, especially the
selections that are nearly all blue, and anyone who sees them at a
show wants them immediately (so immediately that I've been tempted to
tie down a pot with a bicycle lock).

The best way to increase Tecophilaea cyanocrocus, I believe, is by
seed. Seedlings can flower in the third year. Joshua wrote that he
had read they produce "a copious amount of seed," but this is
misleading: few capsules contain more than 9 seeds.

SOmeone wrote that "subsp. leichtlinii" increases faster than the
"typical" (mostly blue) form, but I haven't found that to be so.
Moreover, from descriptions of the rediscovered wild populations, it
seems that the white-centered "leichtlinii" is likely to be just
representative of the normal range of color variation, and in fact is
said to be the more common in naturally occurring populations. I
suspect that gardeners selected out the dark blue forms, which are
more striking.

My plants, which stem from three bulbs bought around 1990, have gone
through many periods of temperatures around 20 F in cold frames and
now in a mesh-sided bulb house. I've also grown pots of the species
in a frost-free solarium, but they did not flower well there and
became etiolated. They seem to flower best and appear most in
character when grown "hard."

The description of the wild habitat published several years ago in
the Chilean botanical journal Gayana reminded me of the habitats of
deciduous Lewisia species in the North American West: dirt and scree
slopes, very moist in spring from snowmelt and dry in summer. In
fact, I enjoy growing Lewisia oppositifolia and L. brachycalyx next
to Tecophilaea; they flower at the same time and are beautiful
together. Another pretty combination is with the deep yellow
Fritillaria pudica.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA