Cheerful fall bulbs
Jane McGary (Tue, 08 Oct 2019 15:08:12 PDT)

Here in western Oregon we are into autumn a little earlier than usual,
the rains having begun around mid-September rather than mid-October.
It's also been cooler than usual. (Apologies to readers in the eastern
USA, who have been suffering a heat wave.) Bulbs in both the open garden
and the covered bulb house (which I start watering when the rains start)
are responding happily. The bulb lawn had a little show of Colchicum
boissieri and now has Crocus kotschyanus, Crocus serotinus, and Crocus
niveus. C. kotschyanus also flourishes in the rock garden and on the
raised "tulip bed," where Crocus tournefortii has opened its flowers
that are so determined not to close up in dim weather. On the "alpine
meadow" bed where gentians grow, Crocus banaticus has made a good clump.
Here and there at the front of perennial beds, Crocus speciosus is just
starting to open.

Cyclamen hederifolium is flowering beautifully in its primary site,
under two massive Douglas firs where little else will grow, and Cyclamen
graecum is doing well on its little raised tufa bed; a stray Cyclamen
cilicicum f. album looks fine among the pots in the bulb house.

Most of the Sternbergia species are in the bulb house, where several
forms of Sternbergia lutea are putting on a show, and two seed-grown
Sternbergia clusiana have opened their huge greenish-yellow flowers;
there is a group of Sternbergia greuteriana from wild-collected seed
just opening there, and quite a few of that species derived from
purchased bulbs glittering on a slightly raised, gritty bed in the open
garden.

The succession of large Colchicum species and hybrids is about at its
midpoint in the garden, and the smaller ones in the bulb house are also
presenting well, from a lovely dark Colchicum bivonae (not small, of
course) to tiny Colchicum pulchellum, and also the low-flowering, starry
species regarded as Colchicum by some and as Merendera by others.

Some small, seldom-grown bulbs are flowering in the bulb house:
miniature Muscari parviflorum, the only fall-flowering species in that
genus; Narcissus elegans, which resembles N. serotinus but is smaller
and does better for me; and Scilla intermedia (not sure what new genus
it belongs to now). In the garden a couple of the fall-flowering Allium
species from East Asia are appearing.

It isn't easy to build up a collection of fall bulbs, partly because
Dutch suppliers avoid the early shipping they need. Look at the smaller
vendors listed on the PBS website under "Sources" to find some that do
ship early. And, of course, grow from seed whenever you can!

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

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