Nobody seems to know Triteleia until they have grown it once, and then they order it every year. It is the last bulb of our season to flower, a June and July thing, all wiry stems and airy heads of violet blue stars long after the tulips have gone over. The corms come off dry, sunny hillsides in the American west, so full sun and sharp drainage are the whole of its rulebook. Older gardeners still call it grassnut, or Ithuriel’s spear, or Brodiaea, and under any name it is absurdly easy to please.
When Does It Flower
It flowers in June and July, right at the end of the bulb year, when the tulips and daffodils are long gone. Each corm throws up a slender, almost leafless stem of thirty centimetres or so and opens at the top a loose umbel of starry, funnel shaped flowers, anywhere from ten to twenty five in a head, over two or three weeks. The narrow grassy leaves come early and are often fading by the time the flowers arrive, which is nothing to worry about, and the wiry stems stand well with no staking at all. Few garden flowers cut better or last longer in water.
Where Should You Grow It
Somewhere hot, and the drier the better. This is a plant of the grassy Californian slopes, soaked in winter and baked from June onward, and it never quite forgets it. Give it full sun in an open spot, a light gritty soil where water never lingers, and a warm wall at its back if one is going spare. Cold, wet clay will lose you the lot. In colder counties the neat answer is a deep pot of sandy compost, stood under cover for the winter away from the rain and the worst of the frost.
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How Do You Plant It
Autumn is planting time. Set the corms about eight centimetres deep and a hand’s width apart, and be generous, a dozen in a clump where you might have dotted three, because the thin wiry stems only make their effect in a crowd. Then leave them be. They want a warm, dry rest once the leaves die down in summer, no watering, no feeding, no fuss, and they will bulk up on their own where they are happy. Split a congested clump in the dormant weeks if the flowers begin to thin. And pick freely for the house all June, for cutting seems to cost the plants nothing.
Which Triteleia Should You Grow
Queen Fabiola is where most gardeners begin, rich violet blue stars with paler centres and the classic of the group. Twilight is a royal blue in looser, airier heads that move with every breeze, and Aquarius is the collector’s piece, a rare double of the same deep blue that nothing else in the border can offer. The pale pair are just as lovely. Rudy opens ice white bells with a sharp blue stripe up every petal, while Silver Queen is silvery white pencilled instead with a fine line of butter lemon. All five stand at about thirty centimetres and flower through the same early summer weeks, so you can mix them freely and the drift will still read as one planting.
Plant These With Your Triteleia
Triteleia thrives on heat and quick drainage, and it comes into its own just as the first summer bulbs do. The three below enjoy the very same baked, open ground and will carry the display on into July. Set them out together and leave the rest to the sunshine.
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