How much water do Bitterroot plants need?
A. I was told that I should never water Bitterroots. By the time I was told that, I had already been sprinkling them for several years and saw no reason to stop since my plants were so strong and healthy. If we have a rainy spring, I do not give my plants extra water. But, if we have a dry spring, I “sprinkle” my plants practically every morning. The plants growing in the wild on our land do not get sprinkled and they do just fine. The difference between plants in beds and those in the wild is just in the size of the plant, the size of the blossoms when they open and the amount of seeds in the pods. I have found that plants in beds that do get extra sprinkling will grow to a diameter of six inches and above, whereas a plant in the wild is usually four inches and below. The blossoms on bedded plants are quite a bit larger and can produce over a hundred seeds per blossom than those in the wild. Wild Bitterroots usually have 40 or fewer seeds per blossom. A word of caution though about wa
