Fritillaria hybrids

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sun, 24 Apr 2005 10:41:16 PDT
I seem to have some hybrids among California Fritillaria species raised 
from home-grown seed. I would post pictures of them on the wiki if I knew 
how to sign in, but I have not tried to post anything since it changed, and 
apparently I need a password which I do not know, or else I don't know 
exactly how to enter my user name.

Anyway, I apologize if anyone has grown plants from my garden seeds of 
Fritillaria purdyi and/or Fritillaria biflora, and now has seedlings in 
flower that don't look like what they are supposed to be. It appears that 
both groups of plants produced at least a few hybrid seeds. The one with F. 
purdyi as a seed parent is quite large, flowering probably 2 years before 
the other seedlings in its group, with 10 flowers on a stout stem -- 
impressive! -- but the flowers have a greenish ground color rather than the 
creamy white of F. purdyi, though they are marked like that species. The 
ones with F. biflora as a seed parent are similar, but smaller, with only 2 
or 3 flowers per stem on first flowering; they have typical purdyi 
checkering rather than the "tips and stripes" of biflora. Some apparently 
pure biflora seedlings are flowering in the same group.

I will search around and see if I can find out how to access the wiki 
during the next few days, to show these interesting plants. Interesting but 
disappointing to some, no doubt, because biflora is dead common and purdyi 
is much sought after.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon




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