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Three Bulbs for Fall Bloom
By admin | June 16, 2008
Here are three fall blooming bulbs to try in your garden. If you have a protected area in your garden where the ground doesn’t go below -18C, you might well want to try growing some of the hardier Cyclamen bulbs. The trick with growing these bulbs is that they want almost perfect drainage and protection from the hot blazing sun. Try C. coum, C. purpurescens and C. hederifolium. The major differences are C. purpurescens is a woodland plant and wants shade and moist, rich soils. It will also continue to grow during the summer while the C. coum and C. hederifolium will likely go dormant in the summer heat to reappear in the fall when they bloom with their delightful small flowers. All thrive under the shade of trees or shrubs.
Colchicum are also called autumn crocus and even more descriptive, naked ladies, and are a fine fall blooming bulb. These are alpine plants, flowering at the snow-melt line in alpine meadows and rocky outcrops - they deman perfect drainage with no extra summer water. The only problem with them is that they send up a flower in the fall and then develop leaves. In cold areas, the bulb may not get enough sunshine to replenish the bulb and it will die. This is a perfect plant for the rock garden but given they have quite a short flower stalk, they do not fit well into the general flower border.
Lycoris, called naked lily, spider lily and even resurrection lily is an interesting tender fall blooming bulb. L. squamigera, is a tender bulb in USDA zone 6 but is can be dug in the fall and treated exactly as a glad bulb. This Chinese native produces leaves in the spring that fade away during the summer. The flowers appear in the fall without leaves and several stalks of rose-lavender to lavender pink flowers appear. At three-feet tall, this is an excellent plant for the perennial border. Dig and store cool and dry over winter in cold areas. More information on growing these fall blooming bulbs can be found at this website.
Doug Green, award winning author of seven gardening books answers question in his free newsletter at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/gardeningnewsletter.html
Tags: Bulbs, flower bulbs, gardeningTags: flowers |