Fritillaria davisii

“Rise up, warriors, take your stand at one another’s sides, our feet set wide and rooted like oaks in the ground. ‘‘…learn to love death’s ink-black shadow as much as you love the light of dawn. ‘Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession, here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win.” – Tyrtaeus, Spartan Poet

The Ukranians are fighting like Spartans against a better equipped foe, the People of Russia most of whom didn't ask for war are being crippled by economic sanctions imposed to stop a dictator but being felt hardest I'm sure by the poorest among them. I hope the people of Russia rise up and take down Putin like Khadafi and put an end to this madness that has us teetering on the brink of world war 3. It's hard to sleep much at night realizing what may be coming in the months ahead. If not outright war spilling across the globe, then economic ruin for so many already on the brink. And of course like always, economic boom times for some war profiteers. I guess for distraction, we can take a look at a wildflower that no doubt saw it's share of war and bloodshed through the eons as it evolved to grow in the homeland of the Maniots, a people said to have descended from the ancient Spartans. 

Fritillaria davisii is one of the best short statured, brown flowered species out there. I have grown it for years in a raised bed, exposed to all the elements of an Oregon Winter and Spring, it doesn't balk from copious amounts of winter moisture and the dry summers of the raised pumice and sand bed didn't seem to bother it at all. 

One of it's most enduring characteristics is the way the faint yellow markings show through the tips, if you catch it backlight against a sunset the yellow lights up to give it an internal glow. 

C.H. Grey makes no reference to this species, as it was probably lumped in with F. graeca at the time he wrote the three volume set. It hails from the Mani Penninsula, a rocky, jutting appendage extending south from the Pelopennese into the Medditeranean sea, where it grows along the edges of fields and olive orchards. 

Lot's of stuff blooming in the cold greenhouse now and a few things budded up in the garden and the raised beds. I'm hoping to have more time to post in the next few months as some exciting expansion projects are underway at illahe nursery and gardens. Stay tuned!

Mark