Thursday, April 19, 2007

A Fritillary By Any Other Name...


Of the small fritillaries that are growable here, Fritillaria nigra, native from southern Europe to the Caucasus is one of the nicest, with elegantly airy, greyish-green foliage and patterned flowers of deep plum, with golden interiors. However, it is one of those plants where you could probably triple the number of species of fritillaries that you claim to grow by just making up three different labels for the same bulb, as some feel Fritillaria nigra=pyrenaica=montana.
It is equally beautiful under all three species names. Nigra of course refers to the dark, somber outer color of the flowers, montana to it growing in the mountains, and pyrenaica to being found in the Pyrenees mountains, which run north to south, dividing southern france from northern Spain.
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Comments:
Beautiful, Don. I think I might be on the verge of a frittilary (and other unusual spring bulbs) "thing" here... and it's going to be partially your fault for showing all of these wonderful pictures! :)
 
That's a beaut. Better than my uva-vulpis with almost inconspicuous flowers.
 
Thanks for posting such a great pic of this fritillary! This is one we've been wanting to add for a few years and we may just get around to it next fall, since we are definitely planting more Crown Imperials (which I think perished in the recent cold snap... alas) and F. Michaelovskyi, which are currently in bloom. (Hoping to highlight those on my blog soon when I get some pictures.)

Your blog and your woodland gardens are a wonder to behold... glad to see such diversity over in your part of the state! Let's hope the rest of spring progresses as "normally" as possible and that we can mitigate the grievous damage done to our gardens in the past few weeks!
 
The fritillaries here came through the cold snap remarkably well.
Ki... I still like uva-vulpis just because it multiplies like crazy. You can't say that about very many frits.
 
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