I love Fritillarias, particularly Crown Imperial and similar as they make a real impact early in the garden. So I wanted a place to share both old and new pictures. I also hope to see others Fritillaria images and perhaps we can have some interesting discussion about them as well.

To start of, some new ones for me this year. All early flowering:

Early Fantasy has a really unusual coloring. Really stand out among all other Fritillarias:


Orange Beauty gave two blooming stems from one bulb, which surprised as it only was a moderate size bulb. Strong color. Very nice:


Early passion, in backlit version and in normal very late evening light.


F. raddeana is a species similar to the ordinary Crown imperial, but usually much earlier flowering. In the background in the second photo you can see some of the early Fritillarias cultivars. To the very left and only in the bud stage you can see a hint of the more traditional cultivars 'Maxima Lutea' and 'Garland Star'.

Early Dream, as the name suggests another early one.


Images from last year:


A view of the crown imperial bed, also from last year:

They're stunning, William! I hadn't realised that there were so many varieties. Do you have a recommended seller in Europe? I'd better order some quickly before Brexit!

I still remember very clearly when as a young girl I saw crown imperials for the first time - I couldn't believe they were real and they brought a big smile to my face. They still make me smile.

Mika!

I got most of mine from http://www.eurobulb.nl/index.p... . But they are a bit of hit and miss when it comes to quality and cultivars being true to name. They do respond quickly to complains and do good on them, but I don't want to need to complain in the first place. That said the first Fritillaries I got from them was excellent, a later batch good but not great.

You already know about https://nijssentuin.nl/ and the Fritillaria bulbs I got from them was all really excellent. Not sure what your experience was, but I like this company so far.

But perhaps there is no need to worry too much about Brexit as you have : https://www.kevockgarden.co.uk...
They have a really super assortment of bulbs including Fritillarias. I have however never bought from them so know nothing about the quality. Perhaps you have tried them yourself?

wow!
most impressive William

Glad you enjoyed the photos, Dirt.

Fritillaria meleagris, checkered lily or guinea hen. There are some white ones, but they have not opened fully.

Lovely RJ. Looks so natural having them growing in grass.

I didn't know they were called guinea hen, so I was curios enough to look it up in Wikipedia. These have an incredible amount of common names. They can also be called: snake's head fritillary, chess flower, frog-cup, leper lily, Lazarus bell, chequered daffodil or drooping tulip!

Speaking of which:

I have quite a few imperials, all the same old NoID from my grandparents.
They have not been lifted or divided for at least 30 years and they grow well in a dry spot next to our hazelnut trees:



I have several smaller clumps, which are divisions from another old clump under the Gingko Biloba (also a dry, but sunny spot).

I'm beginning to think crown imperials just like living in Europe much more than this side of the pond! They're beautiful Lilli!

So lovely to be able to maintain that NOID for such a long time, Lilli. Looks great and seems like an excellent site selection for a perennial planting. 30 years is quite a long time.

Of course growing conditions differ, but there seems to be quite a difference in how quickly crown imperials clump up. Most, but not all of the ones I have here divide very freely. My first crown imperial, 'Aurora', which I no longer grow, in fact divided so freely that it never reached flowering size. I tried to leave it in ground and I tried summer baking and it always refused to bloom. Yet it grows perfectly fine in many gardens. I'm very happy I didn't stop there, but tried other cultivars.

As discussed elsewhere, I have also tried my hand at growing F. persica:
First year they looked great:





Second year, only 2 showed up and only one of them bloomed. I thought they had died due to too much moisture in the soil, but this year I have 3 up and one blooming, so maybe they just need a bit of time to settle in?

Gorgeous! I love how they're combined with those tulips, the little frits, the heuchera, and the Japanese maple! And I also love how you have everything casually grouped so that the overall look is so natural!

A beautiful garden, Lilli.

Wonderful, Lilli. Sort of a bulb version of a flowering meadow!

I like that you have one of the white versions of F. persica in the mix.
Curious if both the dark and the white survived for you?

The White ones finally opened up. Beautiful garden Lilli!

A couple of hardy smaller species that I have are;
F.camchatcensis..........




And F.uva-vulpis............

They look great, Longk!

I used to have both of them, but camchatcensis was done in by drought a few years back and uva-vulpis was destroyed by voles (even though they are said to avoid fritillarias - this one obviously did not pay attention in vole school that day... ).

William, last year I had a white survivor blooming and this year it's a purple one. Originally I planted two white, two purple and three Adiyaman. The latter never showed.
Last year I also tried a single F. persica 'Bicolour', which was hideously expensive, but looked so pretty in the promotion pictures that I had to have it. I grew it in a pot to give it optimal conditions and it thrived and bloomed, but the blooms were underwhelming to put it mildly.

I forgot to re-pot it in the fall (it had somehow ended up in the back of the potting shed) so it was potted in February. It survived, but does not look as if it will bloom this year (can't really blame it! )

Sorry that F. persica 'Bicolour', didn't live up to expectation, Lilli. It's nice, but gives a somewhat pale impression.

All things considered, perhaps I should be happy that my Adiyaman at least showed up. If it's healthy I'm definitely going to lift it and give it some summer "baking". Not sure what the minimum bulb size for blooms are on F. persica, but I suspect rather large bulbs might be required.

Another thing that isn't always visible from promotion photos of F. persica is that the inflorescence usually is rather small compared to all the foliage. So something to keep in mind for anyone that never have grown this species. Adiyaman is supposed to have more flowers than the common form, but I definitely don't have any proof of that in my garden...