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Where
the garden meets the wild
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TRITELEIA Liliaceae (Lily family) / Themidaceae (Brodiaea family) |
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| Triteleia laxa with a Tiger Swallowtail in our nursery bed. Photograph © Pat Woodward | ||||
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Imagine gorgeous Allium flowers without the onion scent. These summer-blooming corms are part of a complex in western North America that botanists delight in reclassifying. Recently shuffled out of Liliaceae into Alliaceae, they have now been further sequestered in Themidaceae. If you don't see the plant you're looking for, please check under Brodiaea or Dichelostemma. Under any name, these beautiful flowers are easy to grow. They tolerate drought, but do best with extra water in dry situations. Don't try to keep them in pots. Plant them out in full sun, in humus mixed with lots of grit or pumice for aeration. Try them as they often grow in nature: in swathes and meadows, supported by grasses. We have priced them to encourage mass plantings. (You're welcome. Enjoy.) In our garden, the blooming sequence is hyacinthina, laxa, ixioides. We haven't tried bridgesii outdoors yet because quantities are small, but the other species are at least Zone 6. Triteleias also make good cut flowers. |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Triteleia hyacinthina (Lindl.) Greene. Fool's onion. Hyacinth brodiaea. White triteleia. A rounded, 6-cm (2") umbel of papery white scented flowers rises in early summer on a tall stem above wide green leaves. The flowers have green midveins; they start as bells and open to flat stars. Native from SW British Columbia to California and Idaho. Adapted to grasslands that are moist in spring and pretty dry by midsummer. The grass supports the somewhat floppy stem. Height 50 cm (20"). Zone 6. Corms. (Fall shipping only). In Canada 10/ C$2.00; elsewhere 10/ US$1.75. |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Triteleia ixioides
subsp. scabra (E. Greene) L. W. Lenz. Golden
brodiaea. A 10-cm (4") umbel of large florets, mimosa-yellow
with a maroon to brown midvein, opens on an upright, wiry stem in
June-July as the leaves are dying down. Adapted to clay and granite
soils on the scrub edges of dry conifer woods. Native to California and S
Oregon. Our corms descend from nursery stock. Height 30-35 cm
(12-14"). Corm (Fall shipping only). In Canada C$2.00; elsewhere US$1.75. |
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Triteleia laxa Benth. Ithuriel's spear. Blue
brodiaea. This is the intensely blue-violet flower shown at the top
of this page. A 10-cm (4") umbel of large florets opens on an upright,
wiry stem in June-July as the leaves are dying down. The pollen is a
celestial lilac-blue. Native to SW Oregon and N California. Our corms
descend from nursery stock. Adapted to fairly dry forest openings and
grasslands. Height 30-35 cm (12-14"). Zone 6. Corms (Fall shipping only). In Canada 10/ C$2.00; elsewhere 10/ US$1.75. |
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| This page was updated September 5, 2005 | ||||