Bulbs of Afghanistan

And at the opposite end of the spectrum we find the Crown Imperial or Fritillaria imperialis -- with a grand name for a grand plant in an outrageous color (typically orange) with a grand mal odeur -- if you get my drift, it smells bad by most accounts something along the line of eau de skunk.

This plant is rarely seen in gardens here, not I suspect due to its fragrance but instead because it will rot unless given perfect year round drainage. But it is a wonderful thing to behold when it does reach five feet and burst into bloom, and besides that it has a wonderful story about why it is also called Tears of Mary. Do you know it? Crown Imperial, Tears of Mary.

On a more mundane level, let's look at garlic. Garlic has been widely cultivated for centuries and has a long history. As it happens, Afghanistan is one of its countries of origin and apparently remains home to some of the few still existing wild stands.

And if you would like to give garlic growing a try, it is typically planted in the late fall. You might still have time to plant your own garlic now to enjoy next year.

Call them what you will, but garlic, onions and alliums (ornamental gardeners will recognize the name allium from the bulb catalogs, vegetable growers will recognize it from the produce catalogs) are all related. Let's let Onions: A Wonderfully Diverse Group of Monocotyledons explain the details.

And given the origin of the alliums in general, it is not too surprising that some of our prettiest ornamental alliums are also originally from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's terrain of mountains, cold winters, and dry summers combine to form a habitat perfect for many plants suited to rock gardens or, as they are also sometimes called, alpine gardens. Among them are many rare "minor" bulbs grown by collectors and a few minor bulbs grown by the rest of us.

Hence we find Volume 67 No.3, the September 1999 Quarterly Bulletin of the Alpine Garden Society (The society was founded in 1929 and has a current international membership of approximately 14,000.) specifically addressing the geographic area of "Western and Central Asia, in effect from Turkey to Afghanistan and the Russian Altai Mountains. This is a huge area with several overlapping floras that are primarily dominated by a climate that has

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