[John J]

I have liked fritillaries ever since first seeing Fritillaria meleagris growing wild in the UK. However I have never considered them to be suitable subjects for growing in our garden here in Cyprus. Yesterday we paid a visit to our friend Michaelis at the Garden centre he runs and saw that he had several pots of a fritillary I had not seen before, Fritillaria uva-vulpis. I was not going to give in to temptation but as we left he gave my wife a bag with 5 pots of them in it.
So, challenge number 1, find out where they come from and what sort of conditions they need.
Not an auspicious start as they apparently come from parts of Turkey, Iran and Iraq where they grow in moist meadows at an altitude of 900-1800 m asl.
Challenge number 2, find a suitable location in our garden to fit their needs. Not so easy when you live at an altitude of 30/40 m asl in a hot, dry climate country.
Anyway, I have planted them and will now attempt to keep them alive, whilst following their progress.

[Umbrian]

I love Fritillaries of all kinds with memories of wild meleagris in the UK too. I have struggled with meleagris here in Italy but iva-vulpis are no problem-  in fact they spread themselves about freely so good luck with yours.

[Hilary]

Fritallaria uva -vulpis
A few years ago, a friend of mine brought me some bags of bulbs from the UK.
Daffodils, Crocus, Snowdrops and this Fritallaria
In due course I planted them and the next spring they flowered, never to be seen again. When the flowers had finished, I either left the bulbs in the pots in a corner of the balcony or took out the bulbs and stored them in brown paper bags, I am not sure which. However, I planted bulbs again in the autumn but none of the ones from the UK produced any more flowers.
  Good luck with yours

[David Dickinson]

I wrote about this plant almost exactly a year ago. It flowered for me for the first time last spring and I had no idea where it had come from. The strange paddle-shaped leaves would appear, ever increasing numbers each year, and then finally one flower that enabled me to identify it. This year looks good with a lot of new growth. It seems that it hitched a ride with other plants generously given to me by Umbrian. Thanks for that :-) Let's see how many flowers I get this time.