Stormproof bulbs
Jane McGary (Sun, 15 Mar 2015 14:01:07 PDT)

After a remarkably dry, warm winter (the jet stream stole our weather
and took it to the other side of the Rocky Mountains), this weekend
we in western Oregon have seen heavy rain and high wind. (It's still
warm.) I went out to see how the front garden is doing just now,
before hastening indoors for fear a large Douglas fir would fall over
on me, and noticed how well the flowering bulbs are standing up to it.

The first that caught my eye was Iris bucharica, bright yellow
flowers cheerfully upright and open atop a gravelly berm. In the same
area I noticed Narcissus rupicola, Narcissus alpestris (I think; it
came as N. moschatus), and a couple of taller Narcissus species.
Erythronium grandiflorum and a neighboring geophyte, Dodecatheon
clevelandii, stood up too. Muscari species are completely stormproof
with their stout stems and little nodding florets, and not all of
them are aggressive. In the flat part of the garden Erythronium
hendersonii looks good, as do the delicate-appearing flowers of
Corydalis 'Beth Evans'. Early Ranunculus and Anemone species close up
a little in the dim light but seem undamaged, including Anemone
blanda, Anemone nemorosa, Anemone palmata, Anemone appenina, and a
couple of the mild-mannered Ranunculus ficaria double forms. Still in
bud but well supported by their tall stems are Notholirion
thomsonianum, Fritillaria amana, and Fritillaria acmopetala. Over in
the bulb lawn the grass is helping support its later bloomers, such
as Narcissus calcicola (don't be shocked; it got there as random
seedlings) and low-growing Ornithogalum species that flower close to
the ground. A little berm above that feature is displaying several
Dodecatheon species from the Pacific Northwest. In the border many
Fritillaria meleagris are up far enough to be raising their opening
flowers; you will see that many Fritillaria species keep their stems
bent over near ground level until on the point of opening, which may
be a way of avoiding grazing animals. And across the road
frontage, a lot of cheap daffodils are still standing, except for
'Cheerfulness', a double that I had to cut for the house.

It's nice to know that however refined our plants may look, they have
evolved resistance to the storms of spring.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA