Sternbergia lutea flowering
Jane McGary (Sat, 18 Aug 2018 11:17:33 PDT)

Re. Bob Nold's post: If the Sternbergias have formed "large clumps,"
they definitely need to be divided and replanted, and now is the time
(getting near the deadline, in fact, as like their relatives Narcissus
they will make some root growth in early fall). If they flowered
profusely once in his Denver, Colorado garden, they should be able to do
it again. They might need some supplementary moisture in winter, being
Mediterranean-cycle growers, but you don't want the bulbs (which don't
pull down very far in the soil) to freeze while wet. Fertilizer couldn't
hurt; I fertilize all my bulbs -- those under cover in the bulb house
(where most of the Sternbergias are) 2 or 3 times a year during the
moist months with soluble complete fertilizer, and those in the open
garden with Apex slow-release granular. I feel that Sternbergias do best
with warm, even hot summers. In the wild I've seen them primarily in
fully exposed positions. If Bob's plants are shaded in summer, that may
inhibit them too despite the very high summer temperatures in Denver.

I've seen one successful open-garden planting of Sternbergia lutea in
Portland, Oregon, where I live, but I have hesitated to expose it to as
long a wet season as we normally experience. I do have S. greuteriana in
a little raised sand bed in the open and it has done all right so far.
Most of my S. lutea (and S. sicula, if it's truly distinct, which I
wonder about) are directly planted in a sandy raised bed with overhead
cover. I find they do much better planted directly in the medium than
they do in pots. The ones I have in "pots" are actually in plastic mesh
aquatic baskets plunged in sand and can get their annual roots out of
the containers. There is some S. greuteriana in there too, and a little
form of what I think is S. lutea from Crete, and another fall-flowering
species, S. clusiana, which finally performed last year at about age 7
or 8. In spring there are S. fischeriana (flowering reliably, actually
in winter, here) and S. candida (shy bloomer here). I've never managed
to keep S. colchiciflora for more than 3 or 4 years and have given  up
on it.

Because the entire genus is CITES listed, acquiring bulbs can be
challenging (especially monetarily), but most of these species are
fairly easy to grow from seed, which should be sown in early autumn.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

On 8/17/2018 5:06 PM, penstemon wrote:

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