Fritillaria covers two plants with almost nothing in common beyond the name. One is a metre and a quarter of orange bells on a stout stem that you can smell from the path, the other a slender thing the height of a wine glass hanging its chequered head in wet grass. Working out how to grow fritillaria really starts with knowing which of the two came in the bag.
Which Fritillary Have You Got
There are three groups on our list and the differences between them matter far more than the shared family name suggests. Crown imperials are the tall ones, a stout stem carrying a ring of bells beneath a topknot of leaves, and they want an open sunny place with sharp drainage under them.
Snake’s heads are the opposite in nearly every respect, small and slender and chequered in dull purple or white, belonging in damp grass and light shade. The species and hybrids sit between the two, running from the stately persicas down to little things like michailovskyi and davisii that are best in a pot where you can look into them properly.
Why Do Crown Imperials Smell
They do, and it is the bulb and the stem rather than the flower. Handle one at planting time and your hands keep a musky, foxy smell for a while afterwards, which is where the reputation comes from, although out in the garden at arm’s length you will not notice it at all.
The smell is also worth having. Squirrels, mice and deer all dislike it, so a few crown imperials planted through a group of tulips will often take the edge off a rodent problem that would otherwise cost you the tulips altogether.
Why Is There A Hole In The Top Of The Bulb
That hollow is where last year’s stem came away, and it is the whole reason these bulbs go in at an angle. A crown imperial has an open shaft running down the middle of it rather than a solid centre, and rain finds its way straight in.
Water standing in that shaft through a wet winter is what rots the bulb before it has grown at all. Tipping it over when you plant lets the water run out instead, and on heavy ground that one small thing is the difference between a plant that appears and one that never does.
Why Did My Crown Imperial Not Flower
Usually depth, and the cure is to plant deeper than feels comfortable. A crown imperial wants a good 15cm of soil over the top of it, and one set shallow will throw a few leaves, sulk through the summer and quietly rot in its second winter.
The other reason is simply the settling in year. These are big bulbs that often skip their first spring after planting and then come properly from the second onwards, so a blank first season is not a failure and not a reason to dig them up.
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Do Fritillaries Want Sun Or Shade
It depends entirely which one you have, and this is where the genus contradicts itself. Crown imperials want an open sunny position and ground that drains, while the snake’s heads and most of the species want damp soil and the dappled light of a woodland edge.
Two of the species then break their own rule. Acmopetala and persica want the sun and the sharp drainage that the crown imperials get, rather than the damp the rest of their group prefers, so it is worth knowing which camp a variety sits in before choosing where it goes.
Do Fritillaries Come Back Every Year
They do, and the two groups go about it differently. Crown imperials increase by offsets forming around the mother bulb, so one bulb slowly becomes a small group, which is why they repay being put somewhere you will not disturb them.
Snake’s heads spread by seed instead, which is exactly why they look so unplanned in grass. Seedlings take three or four years to reach flowering size, so a colony builds quietly for a while and then seems to arrive everywhere at once.
Why Are My Snake’s Head Fritillaries Disappearing
Nearly always because the ground dried out on them. Snake’s heads are meadow plants that expect wet feet in spring, and in a border that bakes through the summer they thin out over three or four years without ever obviously dying.
Mowing too early does the rest. Where they are growing in grass the leaves have to stay until they have yellowed, which is well into June, and a lawn cut through May will empty itself of them within a few seasons.
Which Fritillaries Are Easiest To Start With
Begin with the crown imperials if you want something to happen quickly, because they are the least demanding of the three groups and the most forgiving of ordinary garden soil. Red Beauty and Orange Beauty are about as straightforward as this genus gets.
Among the smaller ones uva-vulpis and acmopetala are the two that settle without any fuss, and persica Adiyaman is worth trying if you want something stately without the full height of a crown imperial. Michailovskyi and davisii are best kept in a pot, where their markings can actually be seen.
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What To Plant With Fritillaries
Tulips are the obvious partner and for once there is a practical reason as well as a visual one. Crown imperials standing over a group of tulips give the planting its height and, with any luck, keep the squirrels off the tulips at the same time.
For the smaller fritillaries think damp grass rather than border. Snake’s heads sit well with scilla and dwarf daffodils anywhere the ground stays moist, and camassia will carry the same patch on into May once the fritillaries are over.
