Fritillaria on my wish list

[jes]

Hello again

 I'm still going to shape my new dream garden so - this time I search for Fritillaria.
 Are any of you who have below or parts thereof for sale I am interested.
 Fritillaria stenanthera
 Fritillaria gibbosa
 Fritillaria ariana
 Fritillaria alburyana
 Fritillaria eastwoodiae
 Fritillaria pudica

 smile from jes

[PeterT]

Jes, I am looking at your surprising request for these plants for the second time.
They are probably suitable for your climate if you protect them from rain in summer, and don't let them grow too soon in a mild winter. They are VERY specialist plants - not for a normal garden flower bed. Have you grown this sort of bulb before??

[jes]

Hello PeterT
 Thank you for your interest.
 No. I have not grown them before and have not much experience but I am very impressed by them and - so I must start, and if I do not try so I never learn it or what 
 tips are welcome
smile from Jes

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Jes,

If I am permitted an analogy: You don't start learning to play the piano by starting with Mozart's most difficult piano concerto so I think you might need to set your sights a little lower on the fritillaria scale (pardon the pun).

Try a simple test: Go check out some specialist bulb catalogues and see if you can find any of these listed. You will find very few and what you do find will be expensive. That should provide you with two pieces of information: they are rare and they are so because they are difficult to propagate.

I am sure you will find forumists who would be only too willing to help with easier, less expensive, and less precious species and once you have benefited from the experience of growing these you will probably find people willing to swap or gift some of your initial choices. I know from bitter experience its often not a good thing to get what you want too soon. One often has a long time to lament their passing.

Cheers, Marcus

[Gerry Webster]

I'll second Marcus' comments, these are not beginners' plants. I tried F. pudica in the open garden (raised bed) some years ago - it lasted about 3 years.

[PeterT]

If you want to try specialist Fritillarias Jes, I suggest F affinis and conica might be good to learn on.
I doubt you will be able to grow conica outside though. I think stenanthera and pudica would be the easiest on your list, though my experiance of eastwoodiae is limited and it is growing easily so far...

I don't think you are likely to succede with any of your list outside in northern europe.

F affinis has stayed outside for me and been happy.
F conica likes to be dry in summer -in the green house. I have not tried it outside.

[Lesley Cox]

Marcus' comments are truly wise and apply to any plants where a genus contains the super easy to super difficult. And perhaps to any field of human endeavour. The doctor who operates on your brain started out learning to give injections; the stamp collector did not first buy a penny black; the most famous chefs first learnt to boil an egg (I'll master that one day, getting the yolk just right  ).

Besides, the most rare and difficult and sought after are not necessarily the most beautiful. Frits meleagris, pontica and acmopetala are all easy as pie but very beautiful as well.

[Gerry Webster]

My experience of frits in the open garden is that the "easy" ones are only easy in precisely the right situation. Many years ago I had a clump of F. pyrenaica in a border infested with ivy roots. The frits increased quite fast & flowered every year. However, the ivy kept the ground so dry in summer that nothing else would grow there. Eventually I removed it & all the frits disappeared within two years or so. I had a similar experience with F. thunbergii & F. pontica The only frit I now have in the open garden is F. meleagris which  flowers regularly but does not increase.

[jes]

Hello all
 Thank you for your interest, it is always nice to hear what others think - you can learn a lot.
 To correct a mistake I'll say that my answer to PeterT included that I had not grown Frit. before, I have currently. 6 different Frit. in my little garden and it is fine and therefore I will pass on - but after your advice, I might consider if I want to try these, but the desire is there, so I do it - - maybe.
 But thanks for the instructive words 
 Smile from jes

[Lesley Cox]

I grow most of mine in the open, either in the garden the larger species or in raised beds and all flower well and most increase by bulbs. Meleagris tends only to increase by seed but acmopetala, pontica, thunbergii, camschatcensis, latakiensis, elwesii, affinis and some others increase quickly by bulbils. Pyrenaica makes no bulbils and rarely sets seed but every year, each bulb divides in two to make a second flowering bulb. It did the same in my late mother's garden too.

[PeterT]

I grow a number outside too Lesley, raddeana, eduardii, pontica, graeca , camschatensis, davidii, camschatense, meliagris.... My climate can have wetter summers than yours I expect? not sure.
In any case Jes was searching for material of rhinopetalums and american frits, and also lives in northern europe. It was unclear how much he / she knew about how to grow these much more tricky plants. I tried to suggest a pair of intermediate difficulty with some of the appeal that Jes might have found in the requested plants.