Fritillaria meleagris - Checkered Lily Mixture, Snake Head's Fritillary

🌷Funky Fritillarias, with unique flowers patterned like snake scales!🐍

RARE. Simultaneously dramatic and dainty, these unusual heirloom perennial bulbs have been treasured by discerning gardeners since the 1500s. Remarkable little flowers - up to 2" long - feature 6 unique petals featuring a flower pattern like no other! The fantastical flowers are set off by grassy, swirling, free form foliage.

Tuck them among plants in the front of sunny to dappled sun flower beds, or plant them massed in sunny fields. They can also be grown in containers. Due to their diminuitive size, they don't leave large gaps in the garden when they naturally die back in summer. 

These mysterious and intriguing flowers are ideal for: Cottage Gardens, Flower Meadows, Goth Gardens, Moon Gardens, Rock Gardens, and more!

For thick coverage, plant 12 bulbs per square foot. Of all the Fritillarias, these are the most likely to successfully naturalize when planted in the ground, and slowly spread from year to year. 

🦌Deer resistant - deer and other herbivores avoid these plants - even voles!

🌳Juglone resistant: These trees can be planted near Black Walnut trees.

🌞Sun: Full to partial sunlight.

💧Moisture: These bulbs prefer more moist conditions than most, especially in spring, although they are fine with dry summers. It is recommended to plant these bulbs as soon as possible.

8-10"T.

Zones 3-8, cold hardy down to -40F.

💚Plant Nerd: Native to moist meadows in Europe, nowadays these plants are rarely found in the wild.

What's in a name? These plants have many common names, such as the guinea hen flower or snake’s head fritillary. While the snake head name is more obvious, the "guinea hen" name comes from a famous British Botanist named John Gerard who apparently just thought the flowers resembled Guinea Hens. Other names include: snake's head fritillary, snake's head (the original English name), chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, guinea flower, leper lily, Lazarus bell, chequered daffodil, drooping tulip or, in the British Isles, simply fritillary. One thing we can all agree on - these are amazing, intriguing plants!

❄️Pro-tip: Plant the bulbs 2-4" deep; bulbs can be planted on their sides. The bulbs can be rather delicate - plant them as soon as you get them. Do you find winter to be a terribly slow time for gardening? We highly highly recommend planting fall bulbs so you'll have something to look forward to on those long, dark winter nights. When you see all those flowers emerging in spring you'll thank yourself for your brilliance and foresight!