Hyacinthoides and stamen colors

Kathleen Sayce ksayce@willapabay.org
Sun, 11 May 2008 14:31:11 PDT
Having a yard well supplied with Hyacinthoides of many colors, which  
I let grow almost everywhere they decide to appear, I went out in the  
rain yesterday and inspected about 100 flowering plants to see if the  
stamen color is ever anything but the flower color. I am reporting  
back that in one case I saw a light blue flower with dark blue  
stamens, and in one other case, a blue flower with very pale, almost  
white stamens, and in all other flower spikes, the tepal color was  
the same as the stamen color, be it white, pink, or blue, light to  
dark.  The open flowers vary from wide bells to narrow,  straight  
bells, the spikes from upright with spirals of flowers opening along  
the stem to 'one-sided' curved; width of leaf and overall height  
appear to be related to bulb vigor and otherwise do not vary widely;  
all plants appear to be in peak bloom right now. This garden was  
first planted in 1865-1880s, restored in the 1940s, again in the  
1980s, and no new bulbs of this genus have been added since the first  
two peak gardening periods.

If desired, I can supply hundreds of bulbs for the next bulb  
exchange, though not sorted by color.  .  .
Kathleen


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