Which fessia?
Mary Sue Ittner (Fri, 28 Jun 2019 09:01:57 PDT)

On 6/27/2019 5:28 PM, Jan Jeddeloh wrote:
"I have two pots of fessia seedlings.  Both bloomed and have set seed. 
I’m trying to figure out which species I have because I don’t want to
send in mislabeled seed to seed exchanges. The later blooming plants had
lots of leaves with the flowers.  This plant was labeled greilhuberi. 
Reading the description it sounds like this is likely correctly named. 
I also had a pot of earlier blooming fessia seedlings.  It wasn’t quite
as leafy but I can’t remember when the leaves appeared.
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the identity of the second pot?"

I grew bulbs from seed labeled Scilla greilhuberi, now Fessia
greilhuberi. I've never seen a key so it could be something else. The
leaves appear in September-October and it flowers early, late January
sometimes into March, in Northern California. I don't remember the
leaves being so large so maybe it is something else. I'm very fond of it
since it flowers early and lasts awhile as well and I like the flowers
too. The flowers look like the flowers on the wiki from John Lonsdale's
garden. In Jerry Flintoff's introduction to the topic of the week for
Scilla he wrote:

"Two others that have been much confused and good also in shady position
are S. hohenhackeri and S. greilhuberi. Scilla greilhuberi puts out
leaves in early autumn and bears 10 inch racemes of pendent blue
bells-it bears quite a few leaves- perhaps too many. Scilla hohenhackeri
waits until spring to sprout its neater leaves and is equal to
greilhuberi in beauty. "

So that confuses me more. I see posts in the archives from Jane McGary
and Jim McKenney who grow S. greihuberi so maybe they might have an opinion.

Mary Sue

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