Muscari

Muscari caucasicum

Muscari chalusicum

(Muscari pseudomuscari)

Gorgeous bright-blue to turquoise flowers, each shaped like a little hand-bell. Each individual flower flares at the mouth, rather than being pinched in, a small item that makes a large difference to its appearance. Early and often finished when other species start to open.

Easy in a sunny well-drained soil but regrettably not prone to rapid increase.

Muscari coeleste

This has intense deep blue buds which open to reveal expanded turquoise flowers (not-constricted or pinched at the mouth), with thin deep blue lines along the petals. These are all held in a densely packed raceme early in the year.

Naturally a very small plant and thus it is ideal for a pan or pot, as it reaches only some 5-10cm tall, even when in flower. Sunny gritty soil. Originally found in Southern Cappadocia, Turkey.

Muscari coeleste muscoecoe	£4.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari commutatum

A distinctive species as the flowers are blackish-violet with lobes of the same colour rather than white or brown. The flowers are held in dense racemes and are elongated bells with a very constricted mouth. The pedicels of the sterile flowers are paler and smaller than fertile ones.

Cultivated bulbs raised from plants originally discovered in Eastern Crete, Lassithi, alt. 200 m.

Muscari cycladicum subsessile

A member of the "Tassle Hyacinths" (i.e. Leopoldia) but with brown (rather than purple) fertile flowers each of which is tipped with bright yellow teeth. The sterile tuft is made directly from the flower stem, rather than being stalked or tasselled, in this species, which is also more slender and shorter than e.g. comosum or dionysicum (close relatives).

This is a new stock. These are flowering sized bulbs raised from seed of the subspecies subsessile, found on the island of Paros, Greece.

Muscari cycladicummuscyccyc	£8.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari dionysicum

Tall spikes of greenish-yellow, purple-tipped fertile flowers crowned by a tassel of long-stemmed glowing purple infertile flowers.

This spectacular plant is one of the largest species that there is. Its raceme can be 50cm long, on a plant 80cm tall, please re-read those figures!

Raised from AH.8965

Muscari dionysicummusdiodio	£3.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari discolor

This has just two to four, narrow, channelled leaves curling on the ground below a dwarf stem bearing a quite large flower spike, for the size of the plant which in total is hardly ever more than 10cm tall. The individual flowers are deep blackish-blue with a white apex and white lobes, the flowers are not constricted or pinched, but open and flaring. Very attractive.

Muscari discolormusdisdis	£5.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari heldreichii

This has just 2-3 greyish leaves per stem with dense racemes of bright blue flowers above, each of which is almost totally round, with a white recurving frill at the mouth.

Far less aggressive and much more attractive than many other garden species.

The image shows a small, young plant, but the flower shape is accurate.

Muscari heldreichiimushelhel	£5.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari kerkis

A rare species with a unique colouring that sets it aside at once. The lower, fertile flowers which are a deep indigo - the colour of a black grape or a damson. These flowers are sharply contrasted with white teeth and these in turn are all set off by a pale blue to turquoise tuft of sterile flowers at the top of the spike.

This is known from only two small populations on Mouth Kerkis (1,433m) on the western side of the eastern Aegean island of Samos whence it was named in 1984. Ours is a nursery propagated stock and presents no problems in cultivation in a sunny, well drained spot with a dry summer rest.

Muscari kerkismuskerker	£6.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari leucostomum

Free-flowering deep rich blue of such density that it looks almost black, an effect unbroken except that each tiny 'grape' is picked out with a tiny white crinoline-edge.

Easy in a well drained sunny spot and fully cold-hardy here with us in the garden.

Muscari longipes

Named as long ago as 1854 and spread from S.Turkey across Syria, Israel to Iraq and Iran. This is a very large and robust making huge flower stems for the genus.

Beautiful broad foliage sits below a flower spike that extends gradually, it just keeps coming and coming. It may eventually be as much as 8cm wide and 30cm long.

The flowers themselves are pale caramel with an ink-dipped mouth. The buds are a brighter shade of imperial purple and merge gradually into the spike of mature flowers. The small terminal tuft is also purple, in a species in which the display of fertile flowers is so very impressive.

A diploid species and perhaps the most striking species f the genus for horticulturalists, this needs very good drainage and not too much water, lots of sun and a dry summer rest. It is not difficult, perhaps a bit fussy but if you want to grow middle-eastern desert plants, a few compromises are sometimes needed!

Photo by Gideon Pisanty. Image used, with thanks, under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Muscari longipesmuslonlon	£8.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari macrocarpum

Large spikes of bright golden-yellow, tremendously fragrant flowers, in April. This species makes large, fat bulbs with perennial roots, quite unlike most other Muscari, and seldom makes offsets, hence it is brought on (slowly) from seed.

Full sun, well-drained loam soil and then leave it alone and enjoy its unique colour and superb perfume.

Muscari macrocarpummusmacmac	£3.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari macrocarpum Golden Fragrance ®

A superb plant first found Ethel Savory. It has been developed in the Netherlands by De Goede Bulbivaria, who patented the strain in 1999 with the cultivar name 'Golden Fragrance'.

It is a free-flowering strain and the name draws attention to its colour and beautiful, penetrating scent, not unlike Gardenia or Stephanotis. We have no trouble here with cold hardiness of the typical plant but this one is, by repute, more cold-hardy and it is thus more suited to our customers in colder climates. US zone 6-9 is suggested but with a winter mulch it has managed zone 3!

Like the typical form the flowers are blue-grey in the bud but by the time that they mature and open, they are bright golden yellow with fragrance that will demand your attention as much as the colour.

Well-drained, fertile soil in full sun these are best left undisturbed once planted as they belong to the small group of species that have perennial tap roots and it is better if these are not damaged by annual lifting.

A new introduction and stocks are still limited. Flowering size.

Muscari macrocarpum Golden Fragrancemusmacgold	£3.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Muscari massayanum

Muscari mcbeathianum

A delightful and very lovely member of the Pseudomuscari section (with bell-shaped flowers that flare open at the mouth rather than being pinched). It has between 6 and 9 extremely narrow (1-2mm only) leaves and flowers of such a pale blue that they appear to be white. These flowers are made from from indigo- and purple-tinged buds and the contrast is as lovely as the white flowers are surprising.

The whole plant is slender and graceful though it is best grown in good light to prevent excessive elongation of the flower stems.

Discovered by the late Jim Archibald in 1985 in sandy soils, under Pines near Adana, Turkey and subsequently named after Ron McBeath, assistant curator at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh. It was described by Kit Tan in Herbertia 1988. The original site is now reportedly lost to grazing but it has been found nearby, though it is still rare and is so far only known from this locality. These are seed-raised plants, the seed from parents themselves raised in cultivation. It presents no problems in a well-drained soil in good light. It needs a dry summer rest, either in a pot, bulb frame or by lifting and dry storage.

Muscari mcbeathianummusmcbmcb	£11.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Cultivated, propagated, flowering sized bulbs (naturally small). Large view