Triteleia peduncularis and offsets from corms

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sun, 09 Jul 2006 11:54:54 PDT
Thanks to Mary Sue for posting the interesting pictures of the "short" form 
of Triteleia peduncularis. This species is known to hybridize readily with 
T. laxa -- was T. laxa also present in the vicinity? Did you check whether 
the stamens were attached at the same level or at two different levels, by 
chance?

One thing I've noticed about T. peduncularis, which I grow both in the bulb 
frame and in the open garden, is that the longer a corm remains in the 
ground, the deeper it plunges, and the larger the inflorescence becomes 
from year to year. I have one in the frame that grew from a seed that fell 
between the pots years ago; it must be down at the bottom of the plunge, 
sitting right on the ground cloth, and typically has a head of flowers at 
least 15 inches (40 cm) across. Seedlings of it in a large mesh pot, in 
contrast, flowered for the first time this year at about 1/3 that size, 
also with smaller individual flowers. Given good culture, they should 
produce as well as their parent (unless T. laxa got to that parent!).

Last fall I bought some bulbs of a European named form of T. laxa, 'Rudy'. 
They flowered very well this spring in a raised bed and are quite showy, 
since the purple flowers have strongly marked lighter vertical stripes. 
'Rudy' also has rather short stems that stand up well, though I don't know 
whether this characteristic will persist through the years. I recommend it.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA



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