Camassia scilloides
One of the earliest plants to bloom in my garden is
Camassia scilloides. The nearly three foot
tall spikes of pale blue flowers open slowly over a period
of weeks, blooming from the bottom of the stem
upwards. I grow it in very deep shade and the flower
stems tend to get a bit lanky. However, I suspect
that if given more sun, they would be shorter and
stouter.
By the way, I found a pure white one this
Spring, I forgot to mark its location and its seeds
have gotten mixed in with all the rest. I'll try to
be more diligent next Spring and isolate it.
Propagation is very easy from seeds which are produced in
abundance. I place drawstring bags over the seed
heads, as it can be tricky to know when seeds will be
dispersed. I sow the small, shiny black seeds in a
well drained mix on the surface of 4" pots and leave
them out in the woods. Seedlings can take several years to
mature into flowering size plants, so if you
want a colony to develop quickly, dig up the plants
in early Spring and divide the bulbs which can produce up
to a dozen new plants in just a couple of years.
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Kingdom - Plantae - Plants
Subkingdom - Tracheobionta - Vascular
plants
Superdivision - Spermatophyta - Seed
plants
Division - Magnoliophyta - Flowering
plants
Class - Liliopsida -- monocotyledons
Subclass - Liliidae
Order - Liliales
Family - Liliaceae
Genus - Camassia
Species - scilloides
Common name - genus - "Quamash"
Common name - species - "Wild Hyacinth",
"Atlantic Camas"
Synonyms - Camassia
hyacinthina, Camassia esculenta
Native of - Eastern US
USDA Hardiness Zone - zone 5, maybe 4
Light preference - Light shade to light sun
Soil preference - Average to rich
Moisture preference - Average to moist
Bloom time - Early Spring
Bloom color - Pale blue
Foliage - Medium green, long, strapping
Spread - 12" -24"
Height - 12" - 36" in flower
Landscape uses - Naturalizing in a shady border or
woodland garden
Medicinal uses - None that I have found, but they
were eaten by Native Americans
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