Kitchen Garden Forum

Came across it on an Open Garden visit recently but nobody around to identify it for me.

a type of Agapanthus maybe

Dear Primrose, it's a Camassia and probably the variety is, Blue Candle....and yours looks to be a very rare side growing one too...

It is a Camassia as OH says. Great herbaceous plant for this time of year if you can afford the space being rather boring for the rest of the year. Many different shades of blue and white. We have one white one so I saved what looked like good seeds but they didn't germinate last year, I've sown the rest recently so I'm hoping.

I'm sure it was on it's side earlier...

Ahh I recognise it now it's standing up the right way...............(actually I don't useless at flowers I'm afraid.)

It was at an Open Garden I visited recently and the owner couldn,t remember its name, now thank yiou, Now I am one up on her!! Having only limited space for flowers in our mainly vegetable garden I suspect its brief flowering nature probably rules it out for me, even if I could locate some.

Camassia bulbs are widely available in garden centres in autumn, Primrose, and they take up very little room to grow. I know you said you had limited space in your vegetable garden but perhaps you have a grassy bit? Because they are quite happy growing in "wildflower" lawns. Ours are doing that just now and look lovely.

That's interesting Monika because there were actually several clumps of these flowers planted dotted about in a wildflower type lawn along with some clumps of Summer snowflake (they look like giant snowdrops) and the mower had just been roughly run around them leaving them to grow on naturally in the longer grass. It wouldn,t have occurred to me to grow them in this way rather than in a herbaceous border but actually they looked quite spectacular. According to Geoff, you can save the seeds and try to reproduce them that way. I don,t recall ever seeing them in garden centres but must now keep a look out for them.

We bought a pale blue one at the Harlow Carr plant fair last weekend. Came from this nursery http://www.harespringcottageplants.co.u ... ssia-bulbs probably not the most economical source.
I only said they set seed, not got them to grow yet and no idea how long to flowering, some bulbs take ages.

I got my Camassia bulbs from a Scottish herb nursery ages ago and have divided them regularly they make nice clumps. It said the bulbs were edible, I think the north American Indians used them baked for a long time until they were quite sweet. I've not got round to trying it, although I've done a very tasty rosti with dahlia tubers.

Good job there are people here with knowledge of flowers. I got that well wrong

Not really wrong - both are Liliaceae. Can be called the Wild Hyacinth. Should have looked at RHS germination notes 'requires a period of cold moist stratification' - which means 'sow seed and place outside in an open cold frame or place into damp compost and store in the fridge for up to 12 weeks'. If this second batch don't come up I'll leave them in a cold frame and see what happens next Spring. I didn't know they would grow in grass so if I get plenty I'll give that a try. I can't find a reference to how long they take to flower from seed.