The Fragrant Fritillaria

I've always thought it was a little bit of an odd name, as the form I have doesn't seem to have much of an odor that I can detect. This one will always be special to me as it hails from the area of my roots, The San Francisco Bay area. One can only imagine what it must have been like when Richard Henry Dana was doing his Two Years Before the mast and he wrote that now famous description of an unspoiled entrance of the Golden Gate. It was 1836 and as he described the rolling grasslands of the Marin Headlands, with huge herds of deer one can almost picture them grazing on masses of Fritillaria of a few different species. Fritillaria liliacea certainly would have covered the open meadows and grasslands of they bay area back then. In Dana's description of the habitat, he points out that a Russian Whaler was the only other human existence in the bay as the Natives lived a days' paddle up the river. It's hard to imagine San Francisco Bay with nothing but herds of deer to dot the skyline.

This is one of the last of the Fritillaria to bloom for the season, F. affinis is still going strong and F. agrestis has all but finished.

Fritillaria acmopetala is still going in the raised beds

The rock garden is starting into bloom, Lewisia cotyledon and Viola tricolor making a show. I've been really enjoying taking pictures this year the new camera has really made a difference and thanks to some great friends, I was able to borrow a really nice Nikon 105mm Macro lens and an adapter to use it on the Sony. Not auto focus but it takes some sharp images. 

The weather has been wonderful, despite a stiff North wind that has blown through the weekend, the days were pleasant and I got a huge amount of yard work done, the burn pile is gone, the late pruning done, mulch spread and the annual flower planting started. Interesting enough, there was a light frost on the ground on Saturday morning, while the thermometer on the porch read 35 degrees. It didn't seem to bother the African Daisies I had planted out the day before. 

Mark