Fritillaria hybrids

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sun, 24 Apr 2005 14:56:06 PDT
At 11:15 AM 4/24/2005 -0700, Harold Koopowitz wrote:

>How much has been done with Frit hybrids/ I think it could be a new 
>exciting avenue.

I don't know of any Frit hybrids that are offered commercially. There are a 
few named natural stable hybrids, such as F. x kittaniae, and some 
authorities consider F. eastwoodiae a stable natural hybrid between F. 
micrantha and F. recurva. My possible purdyi x biflora is so large and 
flowering so young that it may be a useful nursery item, especially if its 
vigor includes the copious production of offsets -- a characteristic of 
biflora but not of the rare purdyi. Diana Chapman wrote me recently that 
some F. liliacea seedling bulbs I sent her include two individuals that 
seem to have F. agrestis as a parent; both of those species are rare and 
endangered, and Diana said that wild hybrids had been reported in the past.

As interesting as these hybrids are, especially if they are better garden 
plants than their parents, most people who grow frits are intent on having 
the true species, so I am rather embarrassed to have sent out possibly 
mixed seed. However, I hope that anyone who grows exchange seed from garden 
sources is aware of this possibility and verifies the seedlings before 
passing on their seeds in turn.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon



More information about the pbs mailing list