Description
(Fritillaria tachengensis)
A wonderful new Chinese species with tall growths (to 40cm) and widely bell-shaped, sweetly scented 5cm flowers from one to as many as twenty in long spikes. It makes slender stems, with cirrhose tips to the leaves which cling to, and wind around, adjacent foliage in the wild. It is worth noting that this is only one of half a dozen or so sweetly-scented Fritillaria species (including F. liliacea, F. obliqua, F. striata)
It is hard to describe the colour but you could say white or almost pink though sometimes they look almost blueish and both pink and blue could be equally correct. If you think this is impossible, then do try one and see! It is just such an evasive colour. The flowers have no markings or chequerings, though they do usually have more intense colouring visible on the outside of the flower, where the nectaries are impressed. Deep in the throat a careful examination will reveal a green star.
For many years we hoped to have this plant and when we at last got them, in 2001, they were every bit as good as they promised to be.
An ordinary well-drained, humus-enriched, garden soil, preferably in a raised bed, in full sun, seems to suit them well here and they present no special problems. We have seen them advised for growing under glass but I cannot see any sensible horticultural reason for this, though of course it is good to be able to see them in close proximity and to appreciate their scent fully..
Described by X.Z.Duan in Acta Phytotax Sin., 19(2): 257 in 1981 from Xinjiang. Found in grassy hillsides at elevations of 1,700m -2.800m.
The subsequent further descriptions of coloured varieties albiflora, roseiflora and varians, in 1989 seem to have been largely ignored.
