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Polemonium pauciflorum

 
Polemonium pauciflorum
Polemonium pauciflorum

Family polemoniaceae
Life cycle perennial (Z3-7)
Flowers yellow (May-June)
Size 12"
Light full sun-part shade
Cultural notes well-drained soil
From seed germinate at room temperature
Flowers first year from seed sown indoors early.
detailed seed-starting info below
Seed ripensearly July

I don't know what it is with this plant, but its seed seems to be happiest as an imposter. So far, we've managed to grow it twice; once from seed for P. viscosum (a blue species), and then from seed labeled P. foliosissimum ssp. flavum, which blooms in fall instead of spring. The red-tinged yellow trumpet flowers look like photos of P. pauciflorum I've found, so this is my tentative identification. So far, we've found them to be finnicky - if sowed indoors early enough, they will bloom in their first year, but often will fail to return for a second year. But just as I was content to consider them annual in our climate (much like several other non-blue polemonium species I've tried), I had a few survive winter in 2008. We'll see if they stick around a while longer.
We were surprised one spring (two seasons after we had first grown them) to find several self-seeded plants, blooming. I find it's actually more charming when mixed at random into other plantings than when purposely planted in groups together. I guess it fits nicely into my messy style of gardening.

This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away...

One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog

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Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '03 trade. Baggy 70F (64%G, 4-9d)
  2. Seed from '04 garden. Baggy 70F (45%G, 4-11d)
  3. Seed labeled 'foliosissimum flavum' from '06 trade. Baggy 70F with light (90%G, 5-7d)
  4. Seed from '09 garden. Baggy 70F (43%G, 6-10d)
  5. Same seed as above. Baggy 70F (26%G, 6-13d)
  6. Same seed as above. Baggy 70F (3%G, 9-19d). Only 1% developed.


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