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The Crown Imperial

It is hardly surprising that the Elizabethans who first received the huge bulb of Fritillaria imperialis from Turkey (probably via Holland) and first saw its sumptuous flowers gave it the grandest of all flower names. The eruption (accompanied by a powerfully exotic smell) of its potent-looking leaves from the ground is advance notice of something spectacular. When the strong green shaft sets out its array of shining bells there is no comparable event in gardening.

I have seen as few as four bells and as many as ten, each with six or seven petals. At the base of each petal is a pure white circle holding a crytalline drop of nectar. The flowers can be clear buttercup yellow or bright red-brown. In this garden they have been mixed up and I have never managed to organize them.

Mysteriously they wander round the garden. We started with an avenue of them down the centre path behind the box hedges; now we have clumps scattered randomly. A bulb can be bigger than your fist, but I'm not sure how its offsets or its scales wander so far.

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