On a series of wiki pages Kathleen Sayce reviews bulbs that outlast their gardeners, with some hints as to why. Suggestions came from PBS list members, review of world weed lists, USDA PLANTS National Database, Flora of North America, and some university databases. Because of these resources most of the information below is a listing of plants that outlast in North America. This is a partial list; formal recognition of persistence/naturalization/weediness comes slowly, typically through collection of plants by botanists, who send specimens to herbaria, and crop growers dealing with persistent weeds. Thus any list lags reality. Expect many more geophytes to have become legacy bulbs than are listed. And expect that when a bulb is documented as naturalized in one area, it may already be so in other areas as well. Many that have persisted in California have the same tendency in New Zealand, Australia, and other Mediterranean areas. With worldwide warming of growing zones, any such list is a work in progress. In addition plants that persist in one part of the world may be impossible to grow in some locations. Feel free to add bulbs that should be on this list from your experience, documenting where they persist or other comments.
There are degrees of plant behavior, beginning with establishment, the ability to persist in place, expansion via seeds or bulbs in the garden (naturalization in the gardener’s sense), then throughout cultivated or urban areas, spread to natural areas, and finally, an outward expansion that moves a bulb first into the naturalized (in the botanical sense) category, and then into the thug category. Caution balances desire. Much as gardeners who plant bulbs want to grow exotic geophytes, no one wants to be remembered for planting thugs. The desired balance is somewhere between those bulbs that fail to establish or persist, and those that become outright pests.
If there are pictures on the PBS wiki of these plants, they will be added over time. Species listed on the legacy bulb pages can be found alphabetically by clicking on the links below or by clicking on the species listed in the table.
Albuca through Amaryllis - - Anemone through Chionodoxa - Colchicum through Erythronium - Ficaria through Hyacinthus - Ipheion through Iris - Ixia through Lycoris - Merendera through Nerine - Ornithogalum through Sternbergia - Trillium through Zephyranthes
Albuca through Amaryllis - - Anemone through Chionodoxa - Colchicum through Erythronium - Ficaria through Hyacinthus - Ipheion through Iris - Ixia through Lycoris - Merendera through Nerine - Ornithogalum through Sternbergia - Trillium through Zephyranthes