Exit March

Fritillaria eastwoodiae

I've always loved plants named after Alice Eastwood. My old mentor Jack Poff would tell stories about her, I don't know if he ever met her but he had great stories about her botanical expeditions.

So this particular plant is interesting in that the flower on the right actually developed underground. Long after the flower stalk on left emerged, I noticed a bulge in the soil surface. Scraping around a bit, I uncover this blanched out flower stalk with all these white buds on it. I'm attributing this to an application of a trifluralin based preemergent herbicide called snapshot 2.5tg.

I don't use preemergents every year, mostly because of the cost associated with it. Seems I can only afford it about every other year.

This year I noticed a soil crusting effect that was causing some emergence issues. There is really a lack of published data of the effects of chemicals on the bulbs I grow. Lots of stuff available for tulips, but try to find a study run on species fritillaries.

So I think next year I'm gonna run an experiment on a few different preemergent herbicides to really quantify the effects.... if I had any peers I would let them read it so it can be called peer reviewed! Haha....that's really a stab at my lack of graduate school credentials.



Fritillaria stribyrni......????
Question marks are for the species spelling which I don't think I have right but I'm writing this on a telephone in my bulb house.

Happy to say goodbye to a very wet march and hoping for some sunnier skies in April.

Cheers,
Mark