I image-googled for "yellow bell" and I found the following website
http://www.nps.gov/jeff/LewisClark2/...ntLife1806.htm ,
part of the Lewis & Clark "Journey of Discovery" project. Whether or not
the "yellow bell" is Fritillaria pudica as shown on that listing, it looks
like a fascinating website!

A few more sites about Fritillaria:
http://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/Fritillaria1.html
http://www.bulb.com/springguide98/fritillaria.asp
http://www.ibiblio.org/pbs/pbswiki/i...hp/Fritillaria

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh



"Fran Wagstaff" wrote in message
m...
Two years ago, at the corner of Hwy. 55 and 54 in RTP, there was a
sweet oriental lady selling flowers. I purchased two flats of
something she called "yellow bells". They became about 1'-1 1/2' tall
with many long skinny leaves (similar to lilies, but smaller). The
blooms were a pale yellow, with a magnificent "glow" about them. Even
though they were pale yellow, they almost produced a glare! They were
pale in color, yet very bright, especially planted close together
(which the lady told me to do). The blooms were the shape of a
fronteir lady's bonnet (without the ties), sort of a balloonish shape
at the stem, narrowing to a thinner area, then a flare something like
the brim of a hat. And, they "hung" on the stem of the plant like a
bell (sort of like a teardrop flower). The flowers hung in groups
giving an elongated effect, something like a lupine. The lady assured
me they would "come back every year" and bloom "all summer". She was
right, until this year.

I don't know if it was the combination of a dry hot summer last year,
followed by near flooding this year, but there are no signs of these
beauties in my garden now, when they should be at least "peeping" out
of the ground.

Now, my question is, what are these flowers, really? I've asked for
them at garden centers, looked online, everyplace I can think of. What
I find called "yellow bells" are NOT what I'm looking for. I'd really
like to replace these if I can. I'm wondering if they are an oriental
variety of some sort. Maybe some type of lily?