fall planting and storage
Jane McGary (Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:46:03 PST)

Regarding the question of whether it matters whether one plants
Dichelostemma and other Themidaceae (Brodiaea, etc.) right side up, I
think it matters if the corms are large, but not if they are little
offsets or seedling bulbs. These plants are adapted to coexisting
with burrowing and digging predators, such as gophers and bears (and
Native American humans, traditionally), so the little offsets would
get distributed at random after the large ones are consumed. Not all
members of this group make very numerous offsets in my experience,
but with some you will find a dozen or more tightly grouped around
the large flowering-size corm.

Because most of them have tall, bare stems and lax basal leaves, they
look best in the garden growing among low shrubs (my choice here) or
tall perennials and grasses, especially if you want seed, in which
case you have to leave the stems up for a while (some will ripen seed
on stems detached from the corm, though). Spacing them just depends
on the visual effect you want. CLose groups, which they tolerate
well, might look best in a garden with linear, rather abstract
design, while widely spaced plants would look more naturalistic.

Incidentally all these themids are excellent cut flowers. The
peculiar twining member of the group, DIchelostemma volubile, is
particularly well suited to modernistic arrangements.

We see an increasing selection of themids in mass-market bulb
catalogs, where once there was only one cultivar of Triteleia laxa.
(The recently introduced Triteleia laxa 'Rudy' is a very pretty one
with striking contrast between the pale tepals and deep violet median
stripes.) The offerings are frequently misnamed, but all are worth
growing. So far I have found almost all of them, even Bloomeria
crocea, hardy outdoors in northwestern Oregon down to at least the
mid-teens Fahrenheit.

Back to the right-side-up question, Fritillaria bulbs should always
be planted right side up, except for the tiny "rice grains," which
can be sown like seeds. If you grow some of the California ones that
start out as long vertical single scales, you will see a little
"hook" or barb at the bottom end.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA