Fritillaria pontica

Between believing a thing and thinking you know is only a small step and quickly taken.
- "3,000 Years Among the Microbes"  Mark Twain

Fritillaria pontica

I often quote the ancient 3 volume Hardy Bulbs, by Charles Hervey Grey. While quite ancient, having been published in 1938. I find the entries on cultivation and habitat often quite intriguing.  Here is a few nuggets of what he has to offer on the subject of Fritillaria pontica

"Distributed in Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Asia Minor on wooded Hillsides.......It flowers in May-June, and should be grown in shade in light sandy soil. It is easily raised from seed, and is a most attractive plant. If grown in sun it is almost certain. to be cut down by spring frosts"

So a few observations of my own, it is certainly a great species for the shade, I've grown it out in a section of the rock garden, ephemerally shaded by a large Hawthorne when it leaves out, although for me it blooms well before the trees have leaved out, and it's usually gone quite dormant by the time the summer sun would be hitting that part of the garden.  I find the May-June flowering period off by several months, for me it blooms in the late half of March and into early April.

It's seemed quite frost hardy for me, having seen it through the epic winters  of 2009-10, when we saw temperatures down to 9 degrees in the bulb house.

The weather here has been all over the place, it's been raining pretty hard for the last week. Since we have been under the stay home save lives order of the great pandemic of 2020, I've been getting a lot of work done in the rock garden. Decided to move out some of the Penstemons and Spirea that had overgrown the front of the edge of the drive. I replaced them with Hebe's, red edged and a massive old Broughton Dome that came from Jane's place up above Estacada. Together with the New Zealand sedges it makes a rather nice biotype as if one where driving up a mountain road on the South Island when coming down the drive.

Cheers,

Mark