CamassiaA spring bulb that looks great in the meadow.
Blue or white starry flowers on tall spires above the emerging grasses and wildflowers. Camas is native to north america with about six species.
Camassia scilloides - Atlantic Camas, Bear grass (Eastern United States in North America) The habitat extends along the Atlantic states from Maryland to Georgia and eastward to Texas. The upper midwest states of Michigan and Wisconsin are also included in the range.
Camassia angusta - Prairie Camas
Camassia cusickii - Cusick's Camas (occurs in Eastern Oregon)
Camassia howellii - Howell's Camas
Camassia leichtlinii - Large Camas, Great Camas (occurs west of the Cascade Mountains from British Columbia to the Sierra Nevada).
Camassia leichtlinii ssp. leichtlinii : Large Camas Camassia leichtlinii ssp. suksdorfii : Suksdorf's Large Camas Camassia quamash - Quamash, Indian Camas, Small Camas.
Drought tolerant throughout most of the year camassia needs plenty of soil moisture in spring and can tolerate winter wet.
As with most spring blooming bulbs camassia is planted in the fall. While the bulbs do not spread much camassia will naturalize over time as the seeds self sow easily.
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missouriplants.com
posted by Gloria at 11:59 PM
4 Comments:
Cool pictures. I put camassia on a fall bulb list because I wanted it for the wet area in the yard, but seeing it in color (blue flowers! yay!) means I'll be buying multiples.
firefly, We helped plant almost 400 of the ice blue and darker blue camassia at the Lurie where I'm a volunteer.What a wonderful addition to both the shadier dark plate meadow and the sunny light plate meadow spring 2006.
There are also white camassia of which I have a few planted in my own garden. The blues are prettier. This year I'm planning many more in the rain garden. If the literature is correct a sometimes very wet soil should not harm the bulbs.
I kept many seeds from last year's flowering and have them in with the winter sown plants. We will see how they do.
Would you believe that I totally forgot about Camassia? I had light blue camassia [not sure about the species, bought through an ornamental bulb company] when we lived in IL and they did increase as they established.
Thanks for the reminder, Gloria, I'll try to plant some next fall.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Hi Annie,I grow quite a few spring blooming bulbs and intend to keep planting a few more each year. There always seems to be room for a few more...
I hope all the garden bloggers show lots of pictures when the bulbs begin. I am already seeing a few in those warmer climates.When in San Franciso for a few days we saw lots of bulbs in large containers and raised beds and many cyclamen were blooming.
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