Calochortus clavatus var. clavatus

“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” John Keats

Calochortus clavatus var. clavatus

Keats wrote that in a love letter to his fiance, Fanny Brawne, but he died 3 years after the engagment, and before they could receive the consent of Fanny's Mother, to wed, apparently she didn't approve of Keats..........I guess a poet was too much of a risk back in those days. You don't want to end up being "a liability to someones career", I guess. Such a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions really.

I was following a posting on the PBS discussion emails about late blooming Calochortus. The C. clavatus var. clavatus above is the last to bloom for me. Now comes the season of the summer Gladiolous and Acidanthera. C. clavatus var. clavatus hails from the coastal and valley foothills of Southern California. Were one to take that iconic trip up Mullholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains above Los Angeles you could encounter this variety growing along the roadside. This is one of the drier clime species for sure, with the average annual rainfall in it's type local hitting somewhere around 13" per year. The average lows it sees are pretty mild as well, it's been down into the 20's for me, but would likely seldom if ever see this type of a low in the wild. I haven't noticed any pollinators on this one yet, but I sure do hope it sets seed.

Catalog out sometime in Early August.

We are locked into our typical modified meditteranean summer now, highs in the 80's, comfortably cool at night, dew still on the grass in the morning.

Cheers,

mark