Rhinopetalum Fritillaria, was Seed germinating in chiller
Jane McGary (Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:32:34 PST)

Peter Taggart wrote:

I would put the pot of seedlings in the bulb frame.
The Fritillaria karalinii on the Wiki looks like a pot of small / young
bulbs, possiably slightly out of character due to lush growing conditions.
The plant on the Frit Group site is a very different and exceptional form.
I am not certain of the diagnostics but it is certainly a rhinopetalum.
I also have seedlings up of Fritillarias karalinii and ariana. They seem a
little early this year.

I have grown all of the Rhinopetalum section Fritillaria species from
seed except for F. karelinii (note spelling) and I agree that the
seedlings are quite hardy and should be kept cool. Several times I
ordered seed of F. karelinii from exchanges and got a different
species, and I bought a bulb under that name from Paul Christian (I
believe it was Chinese-grown) and it was actually F. tortifolia. I
think that Janis Ruksans may, at least some years, supply the true
species as bulbs. I saw one from his nursery that was a large plant
with lovely lavender flowers. The owner had paid a very high price
for it, but I wish I had ordered one too!

All these species (which appear in Czech and other former Eastern
Bloc country seed lists as genus Rhinopetalum) do best if grown hard
in very gritty soil and kept dry but not desiccated in summer. They
shouldn't be exposed to wet freezing, so keep them protected from
winter rains. They are especially desirable because of the attractive
colors of most of them -- not "frog-colored" green and brown, but
white, pink, and lavender. The section name comes from the form of
the nectary, which is deeply indented so that the back of the petal
appears to have a "nose." F. stenanthera is the easiest species to
start with, and unlike most of the other species, it occasionally
produces offsets so that good color forms can be increased. Another
easy one is F. bucharica, which doesn't look much like those
mentioned above and has a lot of white or greenish white flowers; it
can sometimes be purchased as a bulb. F. ariana (also spelled
arriana) and F. gibbosa are similar and, I think, sometimes confused
in cultivation; the former is a lovely pink.

If you have a cold frame or alpine house, you should try these bulbs
for interest early in the season. Along with some western American
species, they are usually the earliest fritillarias in flower.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA