St. Patricks Day 2012

Just back from a great weekend getaway to Portland. Stopped in to see Jane's new bulb house, it's quite impressive. Apart from the structure, which will be still standing following the apocalypse, the bulbs were putting on quite a show. It's been a few years since I was last by her place, she had just purchased it at the time and it was mostly vast swaths of lawn. Her garden beds are coming along quite nicely and the rock garden along the edge of her driveway is amazing.

Fritillaria hermonis Phillips and Rix state that the subspecies amana is variable, with specimens from Turkey having green leaves and specimens from Lebanon having glaucous leaves. I'm not sure the provenance but this one has green leaves. Grows in rocks and screes in Pine and Cedar forests.

Fritillaria caucasica I think I have a picture of this in a former post, but this particular bloom was much larger than the rest. Gosh darnit, I lost the label on this and Jane told me the name when we were looking at it in her bulb house but again the name escapes me. I think it's a Hyacinthella, it's pretty stunninng whatever it's name. Fritillaria JJA 17255 Jane informed me that this is likely F. crassifolia, It was a Jim and Jenny Archibald collection from Turkey. They are quite variable and a number of the bulbs differ in the amount of yellow rimming. Anyone know where to find a copy of the Flora of Turkey so I can figure out if it's a subspecies? The label clearly states F. fleischeriana, but this looks like F. aurea to me, and from the description of F. fliescheriana it simply cannot be. There is a comment box on the bottom of this post, if anyone knows the answer you will get 2 points. Fritillaria JJA 17242 Another of the Archibalds collection from Turkey, Again probably F. crassifolia. Fritillaria bucharica in all her March glory. Fritillaria kittaniae I really like this dwarf, yellow with tidy little flaring downturned trumptets. From Southern Turkey as near as I can tell. Narcissus watery eyes, No it's actually N. watieri, but if I ever come up with a selection of it, I'm going to name it N. "Watery Eyes". Well, that is all the posting for this evenning. The weather has been somewhat finicky lately, Rain, Snow, Sun...Repeat. I've been sowing lots of seed for the vegetable garden and it's nice to take a break, go over and admire the bulbs and take some pictures, so there will be more coming soon.