Hardiness of Themidaceae, was fall planting and storage

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 10 Nov 2012 10:41:42 PST
In reply to Peter Taggart's comment on hardiness in the western North 
American Themidaceae, the hardiest species are probably Triteleia 
hyacinthina and T. grandiflora, which have the most northern ranges. 
Some of the others get up to quite high elevations but would be under 
snow in winter and thus protected from freezing. T. hyacinthina is a 
large, showy white to pale lavender one that self-spows freely in 
this area. T. grandiflora (syn. Brodiaea howellii) has been a 
difficult subject for me, probably because it doesn't get a dry 
enough winter in this area. Others likely to be more cold-hardy are 
Brodiaea elegans, a fairly short grower with brilliant violet 
flowers; Dichelostemma capitatum (which Peter mentioned, but it 
should do better than he found; see Mary Sue;s comments on hardiness 
and ranges), an early bloomer of grasslands and rapid increaser; D. 
congestum. I also grew Triteleia bridgesii, Brodiaea terrestris, 
Bloomeria crocea, and Triteleia peduncularis in my former garden 
(they're still there), even though they are not generally regarded as 
hardy to the temperatures that occur there, where it gets into the 
single digits Fahrenheit about once every ten years, and to about 12 
F every four years.

Mary Sue discussed Triteleia crocea. It is very confusing, because 
there is also Bloomeria crocea, and they are quite different 
entities. The Triteleia has a higher-elevation, more northerly 
distribution and is a smaller plant.



Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA


you wrote:
>The  cormlets can be so prolific that sorting them out is not worthwhile
>just plant and they can get on with it.
>
>The most tender in my experiance is Dichelostemma voubile and D capitata
>with temperature limits of around 5 F when planted deep in sand, a large
>pot of B crocea was serverly damaged at these temperatures  or slightly
>lower (0F), (wet and out of doors) and I had only one flower stem last year
>as a result, -the pot was not fully plunged.
>Peter (UK)




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