Hi Kenny, I always fertilize all of my bulbs heavy, but that is just me!! The leaning is likely just because they are a bit crowded from the multiple growth spikes. You can easily get multiple growth spikes from a single bulb by the way....I can guarantee you all of my F. imperialis are single bulbs in the pot, but they are all producing multiple growths this year.....completely normal as far as I know. You must really like these a lot to have so many! Do you have multiple variants?? Do you know either Janis Ruksans in Latvia or Leonid Bondarenko in Lithuania?? They have quite a collection of Frits for sale, including some of their own F. imperialis variants. It really sounds like your Frits are doing great, but I think they are sort of famous for this behaviour and I am not sure what it is that they need to behave more nicely. Best of luck finding out :o) Dan

I love Fritillaries. I grow the CI orange, yellow and I have a variegated one now. When people visit the garden in late April and see them, they say they remind them of Thing One and Thing Two. I planted them many times with no real success. When I found the variegated ones (VERY expensive and hard to find), we decided we best learn a little more about them before we spent so much. I learned they can be planted at an angle (about 45 degrees). This will keep the water from sitting on the underground crown. I also planted them within the drip line of a large birdbath. We bought several of the variegated type about 4 years ago. They are still strong, we lost a couple but the rest have increased. We will divide them this year. Yes, they smell bad, but hey, its Thing One and Thing Two! And did I mention they are variegated?! Mickie

Yes, they'll grow very nicely in Zone 5. Two things are really important, though. 1) They MUST have very sandy, well drained soil, as the bulbs rot easily in wet soil. 2) Learned this lesson the hard way. They can be attacked by some kind of a root maggot, which destroys the bulb. I think it might be the same kind that gets into onions and root crops like radishes. At any rate, be sure to apply some type of granular insecticide a couple times a year to the bed, once in spring and once in fall. In the old days, i would say diazinon or dursban, but I think both of those are off the market now. I guess the Bayer Advanced grub control stuff would work. Unfortunately, since they're a Dutch bulb, it's the wrong time of the year. I've actually seen the plants forced for spring sale at a garden center once, but VERY overpriced, like $20 for one plant. The bulbs are expensive, like $5 or $6 each, but not $20.00. This is a very good place to buy them from: http://www.vanengelen.com/

In my experience it has no effect on weeds at all. It does make a great fertilizer, though. In 2012 I used it at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet every month from April through October and saw just as many weeds as ever. The grass never looked that good. If you are looking for less expensive CGM call your local feed stores. You want it in a plain brown bag for animal feed. Or if you have a feed lot in the area, they will have it by the truckload. They might not want to sell it, but you can ask.