Jim Waddick asked:
I have a single stem of what I believe is Fritillaria persica
>'Adiyaman'. How can I tell if it is so? This isolated plant has
>always had a single stem and always blooms. The flowers are larger,
>slightly lighter in color with a richer red tone than my other F.
>persica. I think it is more upright and straight, but since the
>others are in dense clumps, their stems push out in all directions.
>
> Is this 'Adiyaman'?
>
> And speaking of F. persica... does anyone grow 'Ivory Bells'?
I found through sad experience that commercial suppliers are selling poor
forms under the name 'Adiyaman'. I did have the real thing at one time but
lost it in the open garden;' however, it had set seed there, and I raised 3
seedlings which are identical in appearance to the parent. I keep them in
the bulb frame. The true 'Adiyaman' has large rather conical flowers,
colored uniformly very dark purple. It increases very slowly. According to
Janis Ruksans, the way to increase it is to cut the dormant bulb in half
horizontally and replant the two pieces; the upper half should produce
bulblets around the margin.
In the garden I have the commercial form sold now as 'Adiyaman', which has
dull brownish violet flowers about 1/3 the size of 'Adiyaman'. It is very
tolerant of weather conditions here and always flowers well.
I purchased 'Ivory Bells' from Ruksans last fall and the three bulbs all
grew, but all of them "went blind," producing aborted flower buds. I don't
know whether this was the result of being out of the ground too long and
being shipped, or whether it resulted from a severe cold spell in February.
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA