I have flowered B. forniculata here in east Tennessee in the valley between the Cumberlands and the Appalachians. It gets a typical Narcissus-type (moist spring, shade in summer when dormant) spot in the garden where it seems to persist. The flowers are very, very small in comparison to the other species. I prefer B. dubia and B. romana in their many forms - both are vigorous and easy and have larger flowers.
I have another dozen species maturing from seed and hope that they perform well.
Aaron Floden
Knoxville, TN
--- On Wed, 4/7/10, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote:
From: Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Looking for other blue Hyacinthaceae -especially Bellevalia used to be 'looking for Scilla melaina'
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wednesday, April 7, 2010, 8:35 AM
Dell asked,
>Jane and all,
>
>I am very fond of the little blue bulbs. I may have asked Jane this before,
>but can one obtain seeds or bulbs of Bellevalia forniculata or of Bellevalia
>atroviolacea? And if one were able to get the seeds, how are they coaxed
>into germination?
I grow quite a few Bellevalia species. Some, like the fairly familiar
B. romana, have dull flowers of buff and purple-brown, but these may
have interesting form, such as those with very long pedicels. I grew
all of them from seed from various sources. The Archibalds' list
usually has a pretty good offering. I have never had B. atroviolacea.
I do grow B. forniculata, which is very desirable for its flower
color, the exact blue of a good form of Meconopsis betonicifolia.
However, the individual flowers are quite small, so again (like
Scilla melaina) it may not seem as spectacular "in the flesh" as it
does in pictures in books, where you don't see the scale. I grew it
from seed, from more than one source. Germination is the same as any
other bulb of this type: best planted in fall and will germinate in
spring after several months of moist chilling. I find that this
species does best if grown in an open raised bed in a deep pot,
exposed to plenty of rain and freezing. From seeing photos and
descriptions of it in the wild (where it forms huge colonies in the
northern Caucasus), I think it enjoys the same sort of habitat as we
see favored by, say, Iris missouriensis in the American West. That
is, it's really a steppe plant and would probably do better in places
like Idaho than it does for me in western Oregon. Keeping it healthy
at Dell's place in Pennsylvania might be a challenge. I do think it
likes a lot of water in the spring. It is in bud right now.
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA