Description
This PNW perennial is an amazing plant with an incredible history linked with many First Nations groups across North America. Its bulbs were a staple and was actively tended to provide a consistent, reliable food source. Now its isolated due to modern development. It grows relatively fast going from seedling to flowering in three years. Flower colour ranges from white to azure to the darkest indigo. It prefers full sun to open dappled shade in grass prairie like conditions. Here in BC, it goes dormant during our dry summers like Erythronium.
The info from the RNGR folks can prove valuable to optimum success to site position and ethnobotany uses. https://npn.rngr.net/npn/propagation/protocols/liliaceae-camassia-462/?searchterm=Camassia%20quamash
- Seed Count: 25-30
- Collection Date: July 2024
- Hardiness Zone: 4-9
- Height and Width: 15cm x 10cm
- Germination test type: hand sort
- Family: Liliaceae
How to germinate Camassia quamash seeds:
Soak seed 24 hours. Cold stratify 45-100 days. Alternately sow outdoors in Fall-early winter where the soil will not freeze. Germination can happen in the dark, so watch the seed if cold stratifying in the fridge. Prefers cool temps to germinate (4C) so no heat mats or additional warmth is required. Germinates readily. Can be sown en masse in 1 gallon pots and pricked out when dormant.
