This is the first year I've grown this plant. Last fall, I planted three of them. They are grown from bulbs, and the bulbs were huge, about the size of a medium orange, and an ivory color.
They're a very distinctive looking plant, the variety Lutea is a lovely lemony yellow, which blends well with the other colors in the spring garden. Crown Imperial Fritillaria also comes in an orange color, but I would imagine that would be hard to incorporate successfully into most spring gardens color scheme, although it would really snap with blues. There is also a red, which to me looks more like a red-orange.
The main reason I planted Crown Imperial was that it's reputed to be a vole deterrent. I've had trouble with voles, and other rodents, eating my bulbs. So I'm hoping it repels our resident voles. One thing it doesn't repel is squirrel. One climbed up the plant pictured above, soon after that photo was taken, and snapped the plant off at the base.
4 comments:
Oh man what a bad squirrel. You must have been so upset. This is a really breathtaking flower, I have never seen anything like it!
It was pretty hard to take. And to think we feed the squirrels -- there's gratitude for you! If it was the 'praying squirrel' I hope he at least said grace first, lol.
The fritallaria are pretty striking, about 2.5 feet tall. I'm really happy with them, they're a good addition to the spring garden.
Wow! What a gorgeous flower! It's too bad about the squirrel, the ones around here actually dig in our flower beds.
BeesAndTrees, unfortunately ours do too. They are so persistant in going after the potted plants, too, it's a constant battle to keep the plants in their containers.
Squirrels can be little pests, that's for sure.
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