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Erythronium
erythronium

- Height 4-12 in (10-30 cm)
- Planting distance 4-6 in (10-15 cm)
- flowers early to late spring
- Moist, humus-rich soil
- Shady site
- Corms available early fall and midfall
- Hardy zones 6-9

Erythroniums are among the most attractive spring-flowering plants with delicate white, yellow, or purple-pink flowers that resemble little Turk's cap lilies and broadly lance-shaped marble-patterned leaves. All four common species are natives of woodland, requiring some shade and moist, humus-rich soil. The best place for them in the garden is a semi-wild wooded corner or a cool, shady patch among shrubs. If you have a peat garden or a border full of rhodoendrons, erythroniums are the ideal flowers for providing ground interest in spring.

Popular species and cultivars
Erythronium americanum (dog-toothed violet) bears fragrant yellow flowers that are on stems 4-8 in (10-20 cm) tall. Native to eastern North America, it blooms in early spring and is well adapted for planting in the rock garden. The leaves, with their purple and white spots, are attractive even when the plant is not in flower. Erythronium dens-canis (dog-toothed violet of Europe) has pink-purple flowers carried on 4-6 in (10-15 cm) high stems and green leaves blotched gray or brown. Cultivars include 'Lilac Wonder' (pale purple with brown blotches at the base of the flowers), 'Pink Perfection' (clear pink with yellow centers), and 'Snowflake' (white). These cultivars are often sold as a mixed selection. Erythronium revolutum (Pacific coast fawn lily) is the parent of a number of garden cultivars with yellow or white flowers. 'White Beauty' (white flowers with yellow centers) is the free-flowering form most often found in gardens. It has two beautiful brown-and-white mottled leaves and 1 ft (30 cm) high stems carrying one or two flowers. Other garden forms range in color from pink to purple with deeper markings. The yellow 'Kondo' is a hybrid of E. revolutum and E. tuolumnense. Erythronium tuolumnense has bright yellow drooping flowers and pale green leaves on 9-12 in (23-30 cm) high stems. It is named after California's Tuolumne River, on whose banks it grows wild. The plants have taken readily to garden cultivation and quickly form clumps.

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