Gardeners Tips

Dog’s tooth violets are lilies that grow wild in cool shady locations and flower in spring. They can be grown to good effect in your garden.

What is a Dog’s Tooth Violet

• The dog tooth violet belongs to the genus Erythronium and is a type of lily not a violet.
• It gets its common name from the white oblong corm that resembles a tooth and the flower which resembles a violet.
• Other names include trout lily, snow lily, Fawn lily or an adder’s tongue.
• Dog’s Tooth Violets grow in shady cool conditions and flower at their best during March & April.

Varieties of Dog’s Tooth Violet

Erythronium californicum ‘White Beauty’ is the easiest Dog’s Tooth violet to grow with its white flowers and a yellow centre. It is a classic spring flowering bulb with their Turk’s cap flowers that are an eye catching white. They delight in a humus rich soil either acid or alkaline and are good in dappled shade under deciduous trees in a soil that dries out in Summer. They like growing in similar conditions to Snowdrops, Trilliums and Cyclamen with which they partner quite successfully.

Erythronium revolutum grows about 1 foot tall and has pink flowers. . The colour in this Dog’s Tooth Violet varies and it is worth getting a strongly coloured and vigorous form such as ‘Knightshayes’ Pink’. Buy seeds from Thompson & Morgan



Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ is quite a vigorous hybrid which is easily grown with lemon yellow flowers and bronzed foliage. It has large leaf growth and looks a bit untidy after flowering but is amongst the best Dog’s Tooth Violet for trouble free growing. Citronella is another yellow variety to grow for naturalising.



Erythronium Dens Canis (Dog’s Teeth) can be bought in mixtures and are excellent for naturalising given the right conditions of moist partial shade. They tend to be lower growing than the other species mentioned above and are often found in the wild.

If you want to know more about Erythronium they are well covered in Gardening with Woodlands Plants

Read about Sweet Growing Violets




Credits
Japanese dog’s tooth violet by kamonegi_jp CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Dog Tooth Violets by RobMan170 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Yes it seems strange but some of the new spring shoots in the garden are deep red.

The bleeding heart or Dicentra Formosa is growing rapidly from red shoots to red stalks the plant will soon blossom with the heart shaped flower.

The strongest red and my favourite is the shoot of the paeony. When they are just breaking through the ground the look like little short domes of  a strong glossy red. Well established plants produce a large number of shoots which augers well for a show of blossom in June.

I have just seen frondy red stalks from a spirea in a neighbour’s garden and the red buds of my Rhubarb have just shot in to bright green leaf with swelling red stalks.

Don’t let anyone tell you spring is only for the yellows, look around at soil level and I hope you will agree.

Bluebells can become invasive in the garden and become too much of a good thing. The bulbs go deep down into good soil and if you want to remove them they must be dug out totally. The white bulbs throw off little bulbils and they will grow back unless you clean up the soil to at  least 12 “. If your garden veers towards the more formal you may wish to tidy up by removing the bluebells.

After flowering the leaves of Bluebells loose the turgid nature and spread in a slimy manner over an 18″ diameter inhibiting other follow-on plants. To tidy up I pull up the clumps of leaves, stalks, seed heads and all to clear the ground. They come up very easily breaking off from the bulb and leaving that for future years. If I do it early enough the bulbs will weaken and flowers be poorer next year but as you may guess I am no great lover of Bluebells except in woodland situations.

Varieties of Bluebell

Spanish Bluebells Hyacinthoides hispanica are more invasive and are pushing our own native species out. If the flower spike is stiff and upright, flowers broadly spreading and petals usually not rolled back with clear blue Anthers you have Spanish Bluebells Hyacinthoides hispanica. They are unscented. Italian Bluebells Hyacinthoides italic are quite similar but less invasive.

English bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta have narrow leaves with scented flowers of straight-sided bells, petals that are rolled back (recurved) and Anthers which are creamy-white. The nodding, violet-blue flowers of these hardy, native bulbs attract insects to their delicately scented flowers. Bluebells grow best under the dappled shade of deciduous trees. It is illegal to take these plants from the wild, they must be acquired from a reputable source.

There are also hybrids of the two key varieties and most of my Bluebells must be the Spanish variety so out they will come.

These White Bluebells are running to seed. Take off seed heads to stop profligate self sowing.

Naming The Bluebell

• The botanic name is now Scilla campanulata and you can often buy bulbs under this name.
• Previously they were classified as Endymion who was a mythical Greek. Endymion campanulatus, Endymion hispanicus, Endymion patulus, and Scilla hispanica have also been used.
• Another common name ‘Wood Hyacinth’, seems to describe the plant and its preferred location.
• There are now many hybrid ‘Bluebells’ mixed with these white bells with names that indicate the colour eg Mount Everest (white) and Azalea (pink).

Bluebells look and smell marvelous in a deciduous wood but the Spanish bluebell in your garden can be a thug that needs tidying up after flowering. If after all this you wish to buy Bluebells you can do so from Thompson Morgan

See also bluebells in flower

Where to see Native Bluebells

Hackfall Wood Ripon.
Trench Wood Worcester
Winkworth Arboretum Surrey

Ashridge Estate, Berkhamsted, Buckinghamshire

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire

Duncliffe Wood, Stour Row, Shaftesbury, Dorset

Heartwood Forest, Sandridge, Hertfordshire

Burroughs Wood, Ratby, Leicestershire

Credenhill Park, Credenhill

Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

Coed Cefn, Chrickhowell, Powys, Wales

Glen Finglas (Brig o’Turk) Trossachs National Park, Scotland

Helenium are a mainstay of the herbaceous border generally flowering from late summer into late autumn.
The colour range is warm and at times fiery with reds, browns, oranges, yellows and bi-colours. Very appropriate for the season and easy to grow from seed.

Common Names

• Commonly known as Helen’s flower as they are believed to have been watered by Helen of Troys tears.
• Some species are also known as Sneezeweed as the dried ground leaves were used in USA as a form of snuff.
• There are 39 accepted species with over 220 known names.

Specific Varieties and Cultivars

• Helenium Sahin’s Early Flowerer (agm) opens with rich golden ray-florets and a central brown disc-floret. It fades to burnt orange over time.
• Helenium Ruby Thuesday is a new compact introduction with rich red florets
• Helenium Wyndley grows to about 32″ with yellow florets overlayed with brown and orange.
• Helenium autumnale ‘Sunshine Hybrids’ is a mixture of seed offering a dazzling colour range of flowers Height: 2-4ft.

Growing from Seed

• Sow February to June or September to October.
• Germinate at 55-59F on the surface of a good free draining, damp seed compost.
• Place in a propagator or seal container inside a polythene bag until after germination which usually takes 14-21 days.
• Do not exclude light at any stage, as this helps germination.
• Grow on in moist well drained soil.

Credits
HÉLÉNIUM by Mary.Do CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Impression, Helenium "Waltraut" by e³°°° CC BY-SA 2.0
Helenium autumnale, Sneezeweed by KingsbraeGarden CC BY-NC-SA 2.0