William, I have a partially shaded area that gets more light in spring before the trees leaf out, and I'm considering trying to kinda copy Lilli's photo above with F. persica and F. meleagris. The tree roots usurp the summer moisture greedily, which seems to benefit other spring bulbs I have in that area. Do you think this would be a good place to give them a try?

I've considered F. meleagris for that area for years, but the catalogs often mention that they prefer moist areas and that has kept me from trying them. It does stay moderately moist fall through spring though.

Neal, The F. meleagris. are fairly inexpensive, I would try it, the area mine are in is an area that is moist it has a bit of a swale and collects water readily...but they are also under 3 very large crabapples. They have really thrived in this spot.

Gorgeous Frits all! I see the one I accidentally knocked off has another shoot

Good point Rj, no biggie if the little guys don't persist but the F. persica is will hopefully be happy enough there to return.

Good news Ginny!

Neal, perhaps you could plant the F. meleagris just outside the rain shadow of the tree and the F. Persica closer to the crown, so to better provide them with their individual needs?

I believe full sun is usually recommended for F. persica, but some very light shade should be okay for you, as you have higher temperatures than us here in the cold north. I would be careful with too much shade though, and in that case I personally might look into a spot against a south facing wall under a roof overhang instead.

I have meleagris in a pretty dry, shady spot and they seem to do just fine

I planted a persica a couple years ago to try it--darn thing grows leaves like crazy but has yet to flower--???
Seemed like a giant bulb; how big do they have to get? maybe it just needs more time?
Last year it was hotter than Hades, all of a sudden, and blasted a lot of would-be blooms and I thought maybe that was the problem. It had these little weirdo things at the tips that just dried up.
This year it's cold and rainy or snowy, and it has the little weirdo things on the tips but it's not doing anything with them.
What do you all think? Anything you can tell me about this, since I clearly don't know much about them ?

Oh, and the thing does 'bake' all summer in the rock garden--dry full sun

Neal, my F. meleagris have plenty of moisture during winter and spring, but are dry to very dry during the summer and they still come back - the old ones as well as the new ones I have planted. My soil is on the heavy side, so that helps retain a bit of moisture and the plants gets plenty of light in spring, but are shaded by other plants in summer.

The F. persica 'Bicolour' was supposed to look like this:
https://www.kevockgarden.co.uk...
But according to Google Images, most of them look more like mine.

In my experience, F. persica and especially F. imperialis bloom from very big bulbs.

Dirt, I have had the same 'little weirdo things' looking like aborted flowers on my persicas - but I do not know what causes it?

Thanks for the tips! The part of the bed I'm considering is at the edge of the tree roots and gets enough sun to support roses, peonies, and bearded irises, so I think F. persica may have a fighting chance. I'm really glad to see that some of you have success with F. meleagris in areas that are dry in summer- I'd like to get at least 100 bulbs to randomly scatter around the area for a naturalized look.

F. meleagris is easy to grow from seed if you sow them outside in late summer and have cold-ish winters. They will take several years to flower, but it is a cheap (and fun!) way to get enough of them to create drifts.

William i am glad you started this thread! A lot of info. F mealgris is the only one I have had success with. I purchased a small pot full in bloom about 7 years ago. When they finished blooming I planted them in the ground. I was truly surprised when they bloomed the following Spring. They have bloomed every year since. I do want to add more of them. I think they are truly charming flowers.

Dirt, if the F. persica was correctly treated before it reached you, it should have bloomed the first year at least, provided you got them into the ground rather early so they could root properly. My first step during summer dormancy would be to dig the bulb and have a look at it. See if it is healthy, of good size and check if it has divided or not.

Ian Young noted in a bulb blog that the bulbs of F. persica divided every year for him: http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/lo...
I don't know if this is typical for F. Persica as I would assume different clones might behave differently, but if it is prone to dividing, then I think that annual replanting into fertile soil is the way to go. Otherwise one could end up in a pattern where the bulbs divides all the time, but never reaches flowering size.

Ian young also experienced the same problem as you and Lilli with aborted flowers in the greenhouse, but the one planted in the garden was fine. He was unsure what the reason behind this was. Could have been the bulb in the greenhouse was smaller or something he did: http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog...

He also notes that warm temperatures in late spring is crucial for next years flower formation. This is a bit earlier than I thought as usually warm summer temperatures is all that is needed for most bulbs, but if this is correct then it could certainly explain lack of bloom or very few blooms on returning F. persica in my own area.

Hmmm! Interesting...

The Scottish Rock Garden Club is a great source of information!

Ah, that's promising news for growing F. persica in my area! Late spring often gets quite warm here.

The F. persica I mentioned in an earlier post still looks good in spite of all the frosty nights we've been having lately:

Thanks William and Lilli,
I guess we can surmise that it wasn't treated correctly because it didn't bloom the first year.
It was a single bulb when I planted, sent up two leaf stalks. There are still only two leaf stalks, doing well mind you--sans flowers.
If the bulb were dividing would it produce more stalks?

I dunno...I might dig it up and check it out when I put something else in there...

Dirt, reading your response about the bulb producing two stems already in the first year I think that your bulb was in the process of dividing internally, although it wasn't visible at planting time.

Perhaps the individual halves of your bulb on their own wasn't large enough to carry blooms or possibly got stressed from growing so tightly together and aborted the flowers.

While they could and possibly now are large enough to produce blooms on their own, you will create a better environment for their future by dividing them this summer if possible. On the other hand if you dig and find that the bulb still isn't fully divided, then perhaps you need to improve the soil structure so it is loose and airy and perhaps also start feeding them more so enough nutrition is available for them already in the early spring.

Sounds like sound advice to me! Mind you, I would leave them alone for another year and see if they would grow large enough to send up bloom stalks - but a) I'm a lazy gardener and b) I tend to end up doing quite a bit of damage when attempting to dig up things... so I try not to!

On a happier note, I've got 3 of these ready to bloom for the first time in my garden (planted last fall):

I'm wondering if mine don't bloom this year if I should dig them up and add lots of amendments to the clay soil. I added compost when planted last fall but I was in a hurry and only did a little. Thoughts?

Just ordered the F. Meleagris (Checkered) after seeing that Rj has them in MN. Ramona on Faraway Flowers is posting her Fall bulbs

Well done! They should be okay in your zone, far as I know.