Turk's-cap

Landscape Uses:Border, Container, Massing, Seashore, Specimen, Woodland garden. Succeeds in ordinary well-drained garden soil[1, 42]. Prefers a good leafy soil in sun or semi-shade. Prefers its roots to be in the shade. Prefers a calcareous soil according to some reports[1, 4, 13, 90], whilst one says that it is probably best in an acid or neutral soil. A very ornamental and polymorphic plant. It takes 7 - 8 years to flower from seed. The flowers have an unpleasant odour. The flowers are sweetly fragrant, especially at night in order to attract the night hawk-moth for pollination. Early to mid autumn is the best time to plant out the bulbs in cool temperate areas, in warmer areas they can be planted out as late as late autumn. The plant should be protected against rabbits and slugs in early spring. If the shoot tip is eaten out the bulb will not grow in that year and will lose vigour. Special Features:Naturalizing, Attracts butterflies, Suitable for cut flowers, Fragrant flowers. References Carbon Farming Information and Carbon Sequestration Information Temperature Converter Type a value in the Celsius field to convert the value to Fahrenheit: Celsius Fahrenheit: The PFAF Bookshop Plants For A Future have a number of books available in paperback and digital form. Book titles include Edible Plants , Edible Perennials , Edible Trees , Edible Shrubs , Woodland Gardening , and Temperate Food Forest Plants . Our new book is Food Forest Plants For Hotter Conditions (Tropical and Sub-Tropical) . Shop Now

Edible Parts: Root Edible Uses: Bulb - cooked[2, 14, 61]. It is often dried for later use. Rich in starch, it can be used as a vegetable in similar ways to potatoes (Solanum tuberosum). References More on Edible Uses

Seed - delayed hypogeal germination. Best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame, it should germinate in spring. Stored seed will require a warm/cold/warm cycle of stratification, each period being about 2 months long. Grow on in cool shady conditions. Great care should be taken in pricking out the young seedlings, many people leave them in the seed pot until they die down at the end of their second years growth. This necessitates sowing the seed thinly and using a reasonably fertile sowing medium. The plants will also require regular feeding when in growth. Divide the young bulbs when they are dormant, putting 2 - 3 in each pot, and grow them on for at least another year before planting them out into their permanent positions when the plants are dormant[K]. Division with care in the autumn once the leaves have died down. Replant immediately. Bulb scales can be removed from the bulbs in early autumn. If they are kept in a warm dark place in a bag of moist peat, they will produce bulblets. These bulblets can be potted up and grown on in the greenhouse until they are large enough to plant out.