Hardiness of Themidaceae, was fall planting and storage

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sat, 10 Nov 2012 07:01:01 PST
As for hardiness I'd like to point out that for some of the 
California/Pacific Northwest natives that you are discussing it 
probably depends on the source of the original seed since many of 
them occur in many different habitats and elevations. When Jim and 
Georgie Robinett and Ron Ratko were collecting this information was 
available and for purchased bulbs now it is probably not. With people 
sharing through seed exchanges of their garden plants, who knows. Do 
seeds collected from plants growing in a different location retain 
their genetic properties for hardiness?

Dichelostemma volubile is mostly a foothill species found at 100-1600 
meters so would be hardier than a coastal species, but less hardy 
than a mountain species, but obviously there would still be quite a range.

Dichelostemma capitatum on the other hand in California is found all 
over the state and in many different forms. Here's a distribution map:
http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/…
So it is found in deserts as well as areas that get a lot of 
rainfall, near the coast and in the mountains in elevations from 0 to 
2300 meters. So you could grow the same species and have a very 
different experience with its hardiness. Our wiki shows A LOT of 
different forms, but probably mostly low elevation forms:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Triteleia crocea is found in the Klamath and High Cascade Ranges in a 
range from 650 to 2200 meters so once again it would be difficult to 
comment on its hardiness. A number of years ago I saw it in the 
mountains blooming in summer at very high elevations where it would 
have been quite cold during the winter (but perhaps during the 
coldest times there would be the moderating influence of snow.)

Mary Sue

At 10:56 PM 11/9/2012, you wrote:
>The most tender in my experiance is Dichelostemma voubile and D 
>capitata with temperature limits of around 5 F when planted deep in 
>sand, a large pot of B crocea was serverly damaged at these 
>temperatures  or slightly lower (0F), (wet and out of doors) and I 
>had only one flower stem last year as a result, -the pot was not fully plunged.




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