Download BULBS for Fall Planting - Mecklenburg Extension Master Gardener

Bulbs for Fall Planting
Dawn Ridley
I
n gardening, there are no guarantees, but there is always hope. To give you a better chance of becoming successful
with your blooms, let‘s begin with some helpful ground rules:
Provide good drainage, using Stalite PermaTill® or rough gravel. You can buy Perma-Till® at good nurseries. It is a
man-made product produced in North Carolina, and is a very good soil amendment for our Piedmont clay, providing
good drainage.
·
Plant bulbs at the correct depth; in other words read the instructions!
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Use a mixture of humousy compost.
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Fertilize all bulbs in the fall, using a good bulb fertilizer, or a mixture of bone and cotton meal.
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Let the bulb plant die down naturally; NO cutting off or braiding leaves if you want your plants to return. You
could dig them up and dry them out, but that‘s too much work; if you don‘t like to see those droopy leaves use ground
covers, daylilies or other plants that will hide receding leaves.
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Stores and catalogues begin selling bulbs much too early for us in Charlotte, NC. We should not plant our fall bulbs
until the ground cools, but if you wait to purchase all the good choices are gone! What‘s a gardener to do? Pick out and
buy firm bulbs and store in breathable bags. Don‘t put them in plastic! There‘s no need to refrigerate them, but you also
should not store them in a sunny or overly hot place. I hide mine in my downstairs closet where it‘s dry, dark and cool.
Then in mid-November or December, I plant my bulbs. You can even plant them in January here. They just bloom a
little later.
Generally, when we think of planting bulbs in the fall, we think of tulips, narcissus (daffodils), crocus and hyacinths.
These are all very good and I shall give you some suggestions for cultivars, especially the species tulips and species
crocus, because these do very well here—and they naturalize! Naturalizing means a plant will become perennial and do
some spreading. Beyond these, however, I want you to think about some other bulbs that you may not have tried, but
do well here. The spring bloom will give you great pleasure.
The Big Four
1. Snow Crocus, Crocus chrysanthus – These are very short, 2-3 inches tall, but bloom late January to early February here.
Good cultivars are ‗Blue Pearl‘, ‗Cream Beauty‘ and ‗Goldilocks‘.
Species Crocus, Crocus sieberi – Blooms in February, 2-3 inches tall. ‗Firefly‘ is white outside and violet inside.
Tommys, Crocus tommasinianus – These bloom in late winter, 3-4 inches tall;
2 very good cultivars are ‗Barr‘s Purple‘, which have violet inside and silver
outside, and ‗Ruby Giant‘,
which is a reddish purple
(pictured left). This latter is
one of my favorites. Tommys
naturalize well here and are
great in rock gardens and
nooks that you pass by on
winter garden walks. The late
Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-85),
former garden writer for The
Charlotte Observer, loved them.
2. Next, hyacinths. I remember a line of poetry from my college days
about losing all your worldly goods except for two loaves of bread: ―sell
one and with the dole buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.‖ It‘s the odor and
the beauty, I think.
Dutch Hyacinths, Hyacinth orientalis – These have a thick stem on which there are multiple trusses of flowers: white, pink,
blue, lavender, even yellow. Good cultivars are ‗Carnegie White‘, ‗Delft Blue‘, ‗Pink Pearl‘. I like the hot pink
‗Woodstock‘ (pictured above right).
3. Daffodils, Narcissus – I love so many of these, it is hard to choose, but the
daffodil is one of the easiest bulbs to grow—and it is not liked by deer or
squirrels. The very earliest cultivar here is ‗Rjinvelds Early Sensation‘, a large
cupped golden yellow. It can bloom as early as late December, although I
usually see it in my garden in mid-January. ‗Dutch Master‘ is an improvement
over the older ‗King Alfred‘. ‗Mount Hood‘ is a trumpet white and ‗Salome‘
is a white and pink trumpet. An especially lovely early smaller yellow is
‗February Gold‘ whose petals reflex backwards. Also, the miniature
yellow ‗Tete a Tete‘, which has two blooms per stem. My favorite of all is the
miniature ‗Hawera‘, which blooms quite late with two to three yellow blooms
per stem (pictured left).
4. Tulips – We all know the tulip,
but how many of you grow the
species tulip? These will naturalize
here. They are smaller and usually
shorter than the large Dutch hybrids, but are lovely and perform very well
here. Good cultivars are in the clusiana group: T. clusiana var. chrysantha with
2-3 yellow purple tipped blooms, T. clusiana ‗Tubergen‘s Gem‘, which has
red tipped yellow 12‖ blooms, and my favorite T. c. ‗Lady Jane‘, which is
pink and white striped like a candy cane.
Other species tulips include T. batalinii, T. bakeri, T. hageri (multiple red
blooms) and T. saxitilis, whose most outstanding is ‗Lilac Wonder‘, a sweet early pink.
Pictured above middle and above right:
Tulipa clusiana ‘Lady Jane’, 4/5/10 and 4/10/10;
Other Fall Bulbs
I would like to suggest you consider using some of the following fall bulbs:
Allium – These bulbs include leeks, chives, garlic, and onions, besides some
beautiful flowers. The best of the lot is a monster A. schubertii which is 24
inches tall (pictured right). The center is lavender with long alien spokes which
develop stars on the tips—truly a show stopper!
I like the little yellow Allium ‗Moly‘, 8 inches tall with an open inflorescence, but
I‘m also drawn to both A. nigrens, a white with green dot eyes and A. azureum,
which is a 12-inch blue drumstick. Alliums want sun and good drainage.
Blooms are early to mid spring.
Chionodoxa – In blue or pink form, Chionodoxa is another Elizabeth Lawrence
favorite. Planted in drifts of 10 to 15, they make quite a show. 6 inches tall in
sun part shade with March- April bloom.
Debbie Moore Clark. Used with permission.
Lily of the Valley, Convallaria – Oh, the wonderful fragrance of the sweet white bloom! 8 inches tall in moderate shade
with early spring bloom.
Trout Lily, Erythronium – I love this little yellow bell-shaped flower with its blotchy leaves, but I have trouble growing it.
Others in Charlotte have been very successful, so give it a try. My mom called them adder tongues.
Pineapple Lily, Eucomis – Yes, it looks like a pineapple when it blooms in June,
likes sun or part shade, and ‗Sparkling Burgundy‘ gives the best color. They do
well here.
Pictured left: Pineapple Lily, Eucomis ‘Tugula Ruby’, 5/18/09, Debbie Moore Clark. Used
with permission.
Checkered Lily, Fritillaria meleagris – Each year they get better! The maroon and
white spotted forms are best and grow about 12 inches tall in sun or light shade
with March-April bloom.
Ipheion – You either like or hate this bulb, but it means spring has arrived when
you see the white Star of Bethlehem blooming. Grows 8 inches tall and
requires sun to light shade.
Leucojum vernum – I‘ve seen the
Leucojum bloom at Wing Haven
Gardens & Bird Sanctuary the first
of February. It has lovely 10-inch
fragrant white blooms, usually 3 per stem, and there is a small green dot on
each scalloped edge. These require some sun, but mostly shade.
Pictured right: Leucojum from Wing Haven stock, 3/29/10,
Debbie Moore Clark. Used with permission.
Grape Hyacinth, Muscari – Easy to grow and the colors are wonderful. There is azureum, a nice soft blue ‗Superbum‘ a
two-tone blue; ‗Mt. Hood‘ that is blue, but topped with white; and botryoides, which is all white and blooms later than the
others. Grape hyacinth grows 10 inches tall in sun or light shade and provides mid-spring bloom.
Puschkinia – This flower reminds me of a white hyacinth, but it has a blue stripe and is a charmer, which grows 6-8
inches tall, needs sun to light shade and gives an early spring bloom.
Scilla – Many of the old Scillas are now called Hyacinthoides, but we still have the Scilla siberica or Siberian scilla that blooms
in early spring in a vivid blue bell shape growing 6 inches tall in sun or part shade. I love to go out around my yard and
see these little guys in early spring! My other favorite scilla is Scilla peruviana, an intense blue with an allium-shaped
flower head 4 inches in diameter. Everyone needs three of these in their garden. In Charlotte, they bloom in April in
the sun.
I‘ve left out a lot of others that are wonderful to try—the arums, the lilies, the iris—and I must not fail to mention, the
voodoo lily.
If you want to see great displays of bulbs all year round, make a trip to Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in Gaston
County, NC (www.DSBG.org.) I can guarantee there will be a show for you there. DR
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Article reprinted in edited form from The Thymes: Master Gardener News, Issue 8, September 2006, pages 8-9. Four pictures used to illustrate this article
are non-copyrighted pictures gleaned from the Internet; all others by Debbie Moore Clark, as labeled.
Dawn Ridley, Extension Master Gardener Emeritus, has also volunteered extensively at Daniel
Stowe Botanical Garden, Gaston County, NC (www.DSBG.org) and Wing Haven Gardens &
Bird Sanctuary, Charlotte, NC (www.winghavengardens.com). At Wing Haven, Dawn is muchrespected and affectionately known as ―The Bulb Lady.‖