I have had great success growing eremerus apparently by doing just about everything wrong. I live in western Washington zone 8a. (When I lived in Ohio I thought zones 8 and above were sunny and warm with very mild winters. This is not true of the PNW. We usually have cool, dry, overcast summers with the occasional high of 100°, winters are extremely wet and can get down in the teens.)
My first eremerus bulbs came from Walmart in March of 2013 and were small with broken roots and completely dried out. I bought them anyway because I suffer from the "They look terrible but I've always wanted them and here they are and so am I so it was obviously meant to be" syndrome. Since the winter rains would not be abating anytime soon, I started them in an unheated greenhouse. I used aluminum pie plates - from the 10" Costco yummy pumpkin pies - and punched holes in the bottom. I covered the bottom of the plates with potting soil, set the dried out starfish looking roots in and filled to the top with barely moist potting soil. They stayed in the unheated greenhouse where I could monitor the moisture until I planted them in May.
My property is in a 100-year-flood-plain. My soil is clay. Not yellow potter's clay like Ohio, but clay nonetheless. My garden is on a low spot on the property where there is full sun and full exposure to the northeasters that are common here. Are you starting to see a flashing red neon sign shouting "Do not plant eremerus here. Certain and swift death to all foxtail lilies"? This is where my gardener's disease sets in and determined illusion overtakes all common sense. Did I raise the bed? No. Did I amend the soil? I added a little compost. Did I put in a bottom layer of sand and grit to aid drainage? I most certainly did not. Did my foxtail lilies grow? They did indeed, to 7 feet. They are thriving and multiplying. Does this make any sense? It most certainly does not. But it is proof of something I can't explain but have frequently encountered in my 50+ years of gardening: Sometimes you can do everything right and your precious plant will absolutely refuse to grow and sometimes you can do everything wrong and the plant grows and thrives and multiplies and sings "Hallelujah, life is grand." Go figure.
My eremerus never go completely dormant in summer but they do lose a lot of their leaves. July through October tend to be very dry here. I do some supplemental watering in summer but not a lot. In fact, the eremerus share a bed with Japanese iris. Now this is all wrong. The Japanese iris don't get the moisture they need in the summer and the eremerus are practically submerged all winter, yet everyone is thriving.
This year I bought several more eremerus bulbs at the PNW Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. These bulbs were much healthier looking. Instead of using pie tins, I set a mesh-bottomed flat inside a solid (no drainage) flat and grew them in that. Two of the three bulbs sprouted withing a month. The third bulb did not sprout; not in March or in April or May or June. I had made up my mind to throw it out but got busy with other things and suddenly, in July, up it came healthy and happy and eager to grow. I planted all these bulbs in a bed that has better drainage, is slightly raised and is somewhat protected from the wind. Who knows what will come of it?
My only complaint with the eremerus is that as the blooms continue opening up the stalk, the bottom blooms turn an ugly dark brown. It isn't attractive and I have never seen it occur in the pictures I have seen. Has anybody else experienced this?
In conclusion, I would like to say that if you really want to grow a plant and don't seem to have the proper conditions, give it a try anyway. You might just be surprised.
Last but not least, I have learned that, with those expensive plants with failure-to-thrive syndrome, after coddling and babying and worrying and coddling some more, a sincere and heartfelt warning that they have exactly 7 days before they will be moved to the compost pile can work wonders.
