ROCK GARDEN * »»• QUARTERLY VOLUME 58 NUMBER 3 SUMMER 2000 COVER: Calypso bulbosa by Rhonda Williams, Wasilla, Alaska All Material Copyright © 2000 North American Rock Garden Socie Printed by AgPress, 1531 Yuma Street, Manhattan, Kansas 66502 ROCK GARDEN QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY VOLUME 58 NUMBER 3 SUMMER 2000 FEATURES Some Alliums from the Golden State, by Wayne Roderick 171 Fabulous Fronds: Growing Ferns from Spores, by Margery Edgren 175 America's Red Silenes, by Donald Humphrey 183 Leafy Saxifrages of the Americas, by Mark Tebbitt 203 Gardening with Granite: Clarence Hay's New Hampshire Rock Garden, by William Noble 207 The Second Hundred: Reliable Plants for the Post-Beginner, by Given Kelaidis DEPARTMENTS Plant Portrait: Calypso bulbosa 223 Propagation: Getting Seedlings Through Their First Year 225 Garden Visits: Rock Gardens in France 226 Techno-Gardening: Garden Records 229 Book Reviews 231 Allium crispum ROCK GARDEN QUARTERLY VOL. 58(3) SOME ALLIUMS from the Golden State by Wayne Roderick In the new Jepson Manual: Higher displayed by the open umbel. Allium Plants of California (ed. James C. campanulatum can be found as low as Hickman, University of California 4,000', but the best patches are general• Press: Berkeley, 1993) are listed 48 ly above 7,000' in very gritty soil. In species and 20 varieties of the genus these big patches, from time to time, Allium. There are three or four on the one can find forms with snow-white or Federal Rare and Endangered List. A dark pink flowers, as well as pale pink. good number of our California alliums Allium haematochiton is a nice, not a are nondescript, and some are look- great onion. It seems easy to grow. alikes. I have tried to grow about half Haematochiton means red tunic. If we of all these species, and many I could could have this color in the flowers not key out to species using botanical instead of the bulb coat, this would be literature, as some are very similar, a great plant. The scape grows to with only small differences in the bulb about 1' tall. Descriptions claim that coats to distinguish them. Here I will some forms have pink flowers, but write about the many species of these I have not seen. The flowers are California onions that, in my ever-so- white with some pink shading. This humble opinion, are worth growing in species is found in hills of southern the garden. California and does nearly too well Most of our onions are small and here in northern California; it is impor• best grown in the rock garden, and tant to cut off the seed "heads." The some are real treasures worth any flowers do make a show in the garden, trouble the gardener might take to one I would not be without. please them. We also have several Allium hyalinum is nice, but if left to species that are dogs—of little horti• go to seed, it can be very invasive, so cultural worth—and two or three that all seeds should be pulled off. Borne in can be invasive. a cluster on a 5-6" stem, the white, Allium campanulatum is best for star-like flowers are quite showy with areas where it can be snow-covered all a slight pinkish cast and reflector cells winter. This onion grows 3-4" high. that give sparkle to the inflorescences. The flowers are light pink stars, well If this vivacity is not enough reason to 171 grow this species, the early-season diameter. The color lasts until the seed foliage makes the most delightful is nearly ripe. This species is found in chives that one could wish for in the masses among rocks above sea bluffs. kitchen. Most often the big patches bear clear Allium cratericola, as the name pink flowers, while the best rose-pur• implies, is found in volcanic areas. I ple color forms are in smaller patches. believe this is the best of all our The best forms have done well in my California onions! The flower umbels garden but never multiplied as fast as look like small pink bon-bons perched I would like. Even in the wild this on or among rocks. This jewel has species does not set much seed, so one heads 1-1.5" in diameter, and it pro• never has to worry about it whether it duces only one leaf per plant. It is will self-sow. most common on south-facing, old Allium tribracteatum can be a most lava flows at rather low elevations, charming gem, the umbels sitting on where the summer heat can be very the ground, or a wretch on a 10" stem. hot indeed, with very little soil or grit For me the dog does well, but the gem covering the bulb. Allium cratericola from high up in the mountains has rot• has not been happy on my north-fac• ted out in the winters. The white bon• ing slope but has done even more bon clusters splattering the ground are poorly in my hottest spot in very grit• treasures that I continue to covet for ty, man-made soil mix. But even under my garden. these poor conditions the plant is Too big for the rock garden, Allium admirable enough that my friends unifolium is a good plant for the peren• have admired them and wanted seed. nial border, growing 15-18" tall. The Seed is, however, hard to collect, as bulbs are an odd shape and generally the ripe seed umbels drop off prompt• are twins. The umbels of bright pink ly and become tumble weeds. flowers can be nearly 4" in diameter Allium crispum and A. peninsulare and make good cut flowers. If A. uni• are very similar in plant height and folium likes your garden, it can seed all flower color and shape. One has to over and become a pest, so old inflo• look very closely to see the difference, rescences should be removed. It is so whether the margins of the inner good for flower arrangements that it is tepals are crisped or straight. These worth the extra work of deadheading. species are mostly scattered in nature Allium validum is a wet grower that and rarely form clumps, but a single some people like, but I think it is only stem of their bright wine-red flowers good for eating! It produces lots of 2'- is noticeable even when you are doing tall leaves and a poor inflorescence of 45 miles per hour down the road. mauve flowers more or less hidden in These two species are most common the leaves. on slopes quite too steep to climb, Allium falcifolium has an unbeliev• where they have some shade of trees able geographic distribution in the or brush. They have done almost too inner North Coast Ranges. Luxuriant well in my garden, but then there is plants can be found at about 1,000' ele• always someone wanting some bulbs. vation, growing in serpentine barrens Allium dichlamydeum is most likely with Lewisia rediviva. At high eleva• the showiest of all 8-10"-high growers tions, up to 7,000', the plants become we have. In the best color form this quite small, and the color, more often, can be a most pleasing shade of cerise , is pink to dirty pink or seldom white. with the flowers in umbels up to 3" in At about 6,000' I have seen this small 172 ROCK GARDEN QUARTERLY VOL. 58(3) onion so plentiful that the rocky slopes the base of the tepals these cells are so were pink, whereas at lower elevations massed that it looks as though there it is scattered with never more than a were a little mirror on each tepal. The few bulbs to a clump. The low eleva• umbels are rather open, the starry tion form is the prize of the species, flowers well spaced and making a having most often wine-red flowers in cluster about 2" across on a stem 4-6" a cluster up to 3" across. I have once high. The flowers are showy with all seen a snow-white plant that was very their sparkle, and this gives them both desirable. This low elevation form charm and good garden value. does very well in scree conditions, as From about 5,000' elevation up can long as it is given a summer baking. be found three of our good onions: Southeast of the San Francisco Bay Allium campanulatum, A. lemmonii, and area can be found Allium fimbriatum A. platycaule. Allium campanulatum is a growing with Fritillaria falcata on wanderer and is found over a very steep, serpentine talus slopes. The wide area, from near the Mexican bor• Fritillaria has been so disagreeable to der, western Nevada, on up into grow that I have never even tried its Oregon and to the higher peaks of associate. This little onion has one long some of our coastal mountains. There leaf and a very short stem with about is much variation in this species with ten wine-red flowers. The talus slope only two characters that seem to be is so steep, and the serpentine is so steady: its preference for a light, loose loose that it is difficult for a person to soil, and the presence of so many stay on the slope and not slip off down plants with a rather dirty pink color to the mountainside. One can run his the flowers. The open cluster of flow• hand in under the plants and lift them ers is up to 2.5" across on 3-4" stems.