CALOCHORTUS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 51, 1 March 1934, Page 20

CALOCHORTUS

A LITTLE-KNOWN BULBOUS PLANT

A little-known bulbous plant, a native of California, is the calochortus, of wjiich a northern contemporary says: "In any one genus of flowers it would be .hard to, find forms so different as those we encounter in tho group to which tho cumbersome name of caloohortus has been given. It means 'beautiful grass/ and was apparently given in reference to tho - grass-like leaves, which are rather untidy and straggly. They are hardy but are I best grown in pots, however, in frames, lor cool houses, as the flowers, on long, slender, wiry stems, are too delicate to withstand much bad weather. There is another difficulty of ripening the bulbs properly after they have flowered. Lik"e all bulbs which ' come from countries where they' are baked by a really hot sun in the summer, they look for the same treatment here to ensure their producing flowers the next 'season. Such treatment is far easier to manage under glass. Kept dry th. summer through, they should be potted up afresh either in the' autumn or at the turn of the year. The question of the amount of water they receive is also an' important one, for they should never be allowed to get dry, and equally must not get 'waterlogged. Calochortus require care and skill to grow them well, but they repay one a thousandfold •by the delightful forms of the flbwers, the brilliant flowors of some of them, and tho pastel shades of others. Infinite variety of form, colour, and detail is characteristic of this genus. Most of the calochcTtus come from California, but they arc found, in- a wide ; area in other States of North-west America." Calochortus divido naturally into three classes according to the shape of the flowers. The first of these, the Globe tulips, have flowers like little Japanese lanterns. The Star tulips, or cat's ears, have^a, small open flower with numerous hairs on the inside; whence they get their name of cat's ears. To the third class belong the mariposa or butterfly tulips; these have iniich larger open flowers on very much linger steins.