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.
