On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 12:37:31 GMT, Janet Baraclough wrote:

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

Snowdrops will do fine. AB [Anemone blanda] can be a bit
miffy; I've never managed to get them to flower even in their
first season, (in acid soil and a high rainfall area).

Try putting some lime -- ground limestone, chalk, etc -- on them.
I have the impression that these Greek plants are calciophiles

Although lots of gardening books yap about overplanting bulbs, I
was advised by a very experienced bulb grower that by and large
bulbs do not like overplanting. The over-plant competes with the
bulbs, and by shading the soil prevents proper warm summer
dormancy.

Grass probably qualifies as an overplanting, except in the case
of some of the larger, more strongly growing daffodils.

Counterexample: Crocus vernus naturalized in a local park's
lawns.

That advice must be a result of your slightly different climate in
summer. In the UK many underplanted, shaded bulbs do very well;
bluebell, snowdrop and wild daffodil woods would be a prime example. All
those bulbs do just as well in open rough grassland/grazing, wherever
the soil is not very dry in summer...and self seed there. Snakeshead
fritillaries grow in dampish grazing meadows too.

I have a long (300') lane as the approach to my property. It is
quite shaded, with vigorous trees, shrubs, etc -- wild
uncultivated stuff. And yes, snowdrops do well there, along with
stray narcissus. I think I may have misstated something here.
Oops.

Isn't camassia native to you? They do extremely well here, planted
under rough grass, and even self-seed into it.

Oh, *those* weedy pests! Two species are locally native, Camassia
quamash and Camassia leichtlinii ssp suksdorfii. I don't consider
them garden worthy because every seed germinates and the bulbs
take themselves to quite a depth! They're not as bad as, say,
Nothoscordum inodorum, but only because they don't multiply
vegetatively.

I once grew from seed C. leichtlinii ssp leichtlinii (the creamy
form from Oregon -- ssp. suksdorfii is deep blue-violet) and have
been trying to get rid of it ever since. I think it's a lost
cause.

Far better to get one of the seed-sterile Dutch clones. I have
one that is very good, with the great advantage of not seeding
about -- possibly "Blue Danube" but I'm not certain. My defective
memory says it was named after some European royal female, but
the Plantfinder shows no likely candidate under such a name.

At one time I went out and searched for white-flowered specimens
of camas, and brought a number of them (and some pale blues) into
the garden. I now have an ineradicable patch in one corner. I
suspect there are plum-coloured and pink forms in the wild, but
haven't actually found one.

Camas bulbs are edible. Steam them. They look and taste like
old-fashioned library paste when cooked.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada