The Bulb Maven

California Lilies

Bulbs from the western United States are the last to go dormant here at Telos.  The lovely Brodiaeas are still in bloom, and the few lilies that I grow are at their peak.  I had been put off growing lilies, since they have a reputation of being difficult and 'prone to virus'.  Well, I think the 'prone to virus' reputation has come about from commercial strains of hybrid lilies which must be propagated vegetatively.  Many bulbs in commerce that are by necessity propagated vegetatively are virus infested, since before tissue culture there was no way to eliminate virus once it had infected the plant.  I believe great efforts are being made to clean up virus in commercial stocks of lilies.

The blessing of growing bulbs from seed is that they are virus-free, and unless they are exposed to other plants nearby with virus, they will stay healthy.  I finally took the plunge and started with the easy Lilium pardalinum, often known as 'Tiger Lily' although, being spotted, it should be 'Leopard Lily'.  this is a delightful addition to a shady garden, and is one of the easier ones I grow.  Here it is to the left.

The beautiful yellow Lilium parryi (seen above to the right) is from the mountains of southern California where it grows in wet areas.  It is as showy as any hybrid lily, and has a heavenly scent.  This is another native lily that is not hard to grow.

Lilium rubescens is from the mountains of northern California where it grows in dry conditions, making it one of the more difficult native lilies to grown.  It, too, is scented, and is much more attractive than my miserable picture.

Lilium pitkinense is an endangered species from a very restricted area in northern California.  My single bulb came as a gift, and is seen here to the right.

Another orange flowered lily that grows locally is L. columbianum from the redwood forests.  It grows on steep banks under redwood trees where it lines the highways in summer.  Here it is to the left.  With good drainage, and fairly cool conditions, this is a fairly easy lily.

I am growing several other native lilies such as  L. washingtonianum and L. kelloggii, but haven't brought them to bloom yet.  These two are very challenging to grown, and I would not recommend them for amateurs.  L. kelloggi grows literally a few miles from my nursery, but grows in a very restricted area, and presumably is very picky about its growing conditions.

The lilies from dry regions are grown here at Telos in greenhouses to protect them from excessive rain in winter, but I can grow the other lilies outside where the main dangers to survival are slugs and deer.  They need good drainage and light shade.

www.telosrarebulbs.com 

Growing California Native Bulbs

The vast majority of bulbs that are native to the western United States come from a Mediterranean climate, where winters are cool and wet, but with only occasional severe frosts, and summers are completely dry.  Other such climates are (obviously) the countries that surround the Mediterranean, the west coast of Chile, western Australia and the western portion of the Cape Province of South Africa. 

Bulbs from all these regions exhibit the same growth patterns.  As the winter rains commence in autumn they come into growth, producing leaves that persist throughout the winter, then blooming in late winter through spring, going dormant in the warm, dry summers, such as the lovely Triteleia hendersonii seen here to the left.  When you grow these species from seed, you must sow the seed in autumn.  Such seed requires cool temperatures to germinate, something that seems to surprise most people, familiar with growing tomatoes or annuals for their gardens.  But seeds know what they are doing, they have built-in mechanisms that tell them when they should germinate, and if they sprouted in the warming temperatures of spring, the rains in these regions would soon stop and that would be the end of it for them.

There are, of course, exceptions to these generalizations, for all these regions have mountain ranges where the climate is different.  Alpine bulbs from Mediterranean climates come into growth as the snow melts in spring.  They grow extremely rapidly, and will bloom and set seed by midsummer, then go dormant in late summer, dropping their seeds to lie under the snow and germinate in early spring.

I only grow a few of the alpine species, for these really need a long cold period to do well, and I can't provide these conditions.  I have been successful with a few, such as Calochortus gunnisoni (seen here to the left), but it is unusual, and I can't fuss with them enough to be successful.

Here are the main requirements of most California native bulbs:

** They need a cool, wet winter with little frost.  They can withstand a few degrees of frost, but not freezing of the bulb itself.  The soil should be well-drained.  Bulbs need to be planted by November, since they will naturally start to sprout at the time the rains would normally commence in the region they come from (October to November in California).

** Most species do better if they are planted fairly deep for their size.  Most are fairly small bulbs, 1.5-2cm in diameter, but they should be planted about 5-7cm deep.  Even 10cm is not too deep.

** They must be kept TOTALLY dry in summer, or they will rot.  The alpine species can take some summer water if temperatures are cool and the soil is extremely well drained.

** They are only suitable for gardens if these requirements can be met.  They can be grown in gardens that have summer rainfall if they are lifted and kept in dry storage for the summer as soon as they go dormant.  All species are very successful in containers, which can be stored in a warm, dry place during the summer.

** Rodents love these bulbs, so they must be protected from gophers and mice.

California native bulbs are well worth growing, and worth any trouble to keep them in your garden.  They range from the lovely starry flowers of Brodiaea, Triteleia and Dichelostemma, to the true lilies and the lily relatives, such as Fritillaria and Erythronium and the enchanting genus Calochortus.  The lovely Lewisia rediviva is seen here to the right, a sort of honorary bulb, for it is certainly not a bulb but behaves like one, going dormant in the hot dry summers of the west.

www.telosrarebulbs.com