Bulbs

October 23, 2006

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Garlic Lessons Learned

Guest post by Emira Mears

The only remaining bulbs I had on my list to plant for the Fall was my garlic. Planting out the garlic required a bit more preparation as I had to clean up some space in my veggie beds getting rid of finished beans, cukes and some arugula that had bolted and I swear was making a run for the basement door, before I would have room to put the garlic in.

This will be my first time growing garlic and so far I’ve already learned a lot. For starters, I ordered way too much (so if you’re in Canada and would like some lovely garlic to plant let me know via ourdomicile at gmail dot com and perhaps we can work something out in the way of a trade) getting a bit confused by the whole bulb vs. clove business when I placed my bulb orders. You see, it was obvious to me when they arrived, but for some reason not so obvious when I placed the order that five bulbs of garlic meant five bulbs full of a bunch of wee cloves that then get broken up and planted individually. But I was thinking more along the lines of 5 bulbs = 5 bulbs to plant like with my tulip order and so foolishly ordered 10 thinking that was quite conservative. I now have planted about 40 cloves of garlic and have some extras for those who are interested.

Anyway. I woke up to another sunny day yesterday and decided I would use the opportunity to get my garlic in the ground. I did a bit of web searching and discovered that there are all kinds of opinions about what one has to do to grow good garlic. Many of the web sites I read stressed the difference between “growing garlic” (which is apparently easy) and “growing good garlic” which is apparently trickier. I followed the advice of a few handy tips I read online and soaked the cloves in a mixture of baking soda (1 heaping tablespoon for one bowl containing the cloves of 5 bulbs) and water for a few hours to make it easier to slip off the skins and apparently to help kill any fungus that might be on the cloves. I also read suggestions to add liquid seaweed to this mixture to help feed the garlic but I didn’t have any around the house and I was feeling mighty impatient (and like this may be my last sunny Sunday of the season). I then prepped the soil, turning it over well and adding some compost. After that I undertook the very laborious task of peeling the skin off all those cloves which took a fair while, and then drained the baking soda liquid off to replace it with a quick soak in some 100 proof vodka. This was recommended as a further way to ensure any fungus on the garlic was killed, and given the wiff of garlic/vodka I got as I was planting these little nuggets I’d say that was successful.

I planted them at a 2″ depth about 4″ apart and was careful to mark all my spots so I don’t dig them up again next Spring. I’ve also read in numerous spots now that applying some mulch to the ground for the winter is a good idea to help keep them warm. I had been planning on mulching my veggie beds anyway to help keep weeds down and add nutrients so now I’ve got an extra incentive. If even half of my garlic comes up we’ll be doing pretty well, which is great as I use a lot of it in the kitchen and even more when I’m preserving in the Summer. I’ll let you know how it goes and if I suspect any of these tips were useful, but I’m afraid you’ll have to sit tight for a good six months or so to find out.

Grow This – Grape Hyacinth (Muscari)

Muscari - Grape Hyacinth

Famous for candy-sweet cobalt blue blooms that resemble tidy clusters of pint-sized grapes, muscari is a versatile, carefree spring bloom. Pack a punch and plant bulbs in eye-catching “rivers” or clustered together in problem areas under trees and in rock gardens. This hardy bulb will even survive in the toxic soil beneath black walnut trees!

Muscari stay in bloom for weeks and multiply effortlessly. Grow white muscari (Muscari botryoides ‘Album’) to use in a spring wedding bouquet or slip a handful of wispy M. comosum ‘Plumosum’ into a vintage medicine bottle. Or better yet, grow my personal favourite M. latifolium whose elongated, bi-colored flower spikes have a dark blue base that ascends to a light blue/lavender top.

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With fall bulb planting season in full swing, I couldn’t help posting this little blurb I wrote for the April 2006 issue of Budget Living Magazine that never was. I just love the pretty little delicate blooms of muscari. I have a tendency towards the tiny little bulb plants that naturalize on their own. There is a garden I pass regularly on my travels that is really just a little teeny patch underneath a magnolia tree that comes to life in the spring with an assortment of small flowering bulbs, arranged very carefully for maximum impact as the garden cycles from one flower and is replaced by another. I literally find myself stalking that little garden every spring and was relieved to finally meet one of the owners last year and lay to rest any fears about my weekly presence crouched down with an assortment of cameras in front of their house. They have video surveillance in front!

There’s Some Livin’ Going On

We’ve been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures here in Toronto which have pushed me to get out and do some early-season garden work. I can’t recall being this eager to get gardening but I suspect that I am always this excited, it’s just the lapse of time between fall and spring that has me convinced my excitment is bigger and better than ever!

It began a few days ago when I got up the drive to clean the street garden. What a mess! I can say with all certainty that it has never been so disgusting. The impetus for this sudden clean-up was the shocking discovery that several clumps of crocus blooms were buried underneath empty liquor bottles (Vodka being the liquor of choice), cigarette filters, and burger wrappers (All I’m going to say is that certain unnamed fast food chains should be sponsoring this clean-up). Thanks Toronto! I know how hard it is to walk those ten extra feet to the garbage/recycling can. SO HARD!

Here’s the evidence: Before | After

I know it doesn’t look like much but that represents the sweat of 2 adult people, 2 garbage bags, a nearly full recycling bin, and some plant material. The fence is toast. This year I’m thinking about getting some rebar and using that for posts. Try and knock that over drunk guy who tramples through the garden to urinate against the wall at 3 am! Or drunken dude that falls into the irises and completely smushes them with his entire drunken body ruining a beautiful display of just-in-bloom flowers!

So then I acquired more seeds.

Lettuce: ‘Lolla Rosa’ – A bright red lettuce.
Calendula ‘Antares Flashback’ – Multi-coloured blooms with reddish undersides. I love calendula because you can just toss some seeds in the garden and they’ll come back up by themselves. You can eat the petals or use them to make skin salves.
Nigella ‘Cramer’s Plum’ – White flowers with plum coloured pods.
Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)
Sugar Pea ‘Carouby De Maussane’ – Flowers are purple instead of the usual white.
Mexican coriander – In trade.
Tomato ‘Pera d’Abruzzi’ – Also in trade.
Beans ‘Scarlet Runner’ or ‘Painted Lady’

I have been growing chives in a galvanized metal tub out on the rooftop for several years. They are just starting to come back up. I can also see anise hyssop, and wormwood making an appearance.

I made a quick trip to the community garden today on my lunch break to check on early spring progress. I picked a few beans (see above) that were left on the vine over winter.

The onions were in full swing:

Lemon balm was poking through the soil in more places then I would appreciate, as is their way:

My visit was cut short by an unexpected rain shower that continues as I write. While it put a damper on our sunny, warm weather, it does ensure that I’ll be able to get out there soon to plant some peas, greens, and the bulbs I neglected to get into the ground before it froze (oops). Spring is starting.

Not Your Grandmother’s Irises

Guest post by “The Bulb Lady” Debbie Van Bourgondien

Mention a grandmother’s garden, and a mental picture inevitably forms. Somehow bearded irises (Iris germanica) always seem to be part of that picture. Perfect flowers for cutting, as showy as orchids, they seem to fit into any kind of grandma’s garden, from the cottagey style that we usually think of in that context to the garden of an Asian grandma who treasures them for the fanlike simplicity of their foliage.

And did you know that many of them are even fragrant?

But Grandma’s irises they usually came in any color you wanted — as long as it was purple. Not so today. Today you can find bearded iris in just about any color (or combination of colors) imaginable, from a pure sparkling white, like “Celestial Flame” to black (Superstition.)

Time for a basic vocabulary lesson here — you may wonder where the “beard” is on these iris, and what I mean by a “fall.”

If you look carefully at an iris you will see that it has 6 petals. Three of them sweep upward, somewhat like a crown. This petal formation is called the standard. Three petals also sweep downward so that they look like they are providing that crown with a base. The downward petals are the falls. Many iris have one color of fall and a different color of standard ? OR the standards, falls or both can display multicolored patterns, different colored edges or simply shadings from deep to light.

Now, if you look carefully at the falls, they will show you a fuzzy sort of (I hate to say “growth” – it sounds so bad!) ? anyway, you’ll see a fuzzy line heading down into the flower’s throats. That is the beard , and it can be any color from orange to the same tone as the falls or standard.

Many bearded iris are two-toned. The rich and exotic ?Supreme Sultan? comes in the hard to find color combination of bright yellow beard and rich mahogany falls. For true delicacy there is ?Hidden World? with pale pink standards and white falls. One of my favorites is ?Batik?, which is a blue and white blend whose petals really do look as if someone had used the ancient batik process to color them. And some are banded ? ?Eastertime?, for instance, is creamy ivory, but has a perfect gold edge around the petals ? almost like a setting for a jewel.

Between the standards and the falls (not to mention that beard!) you have endless possibilities for color blends ? and some iris are REALLY colorful ? Check out ?After the Dawn?, for instance, that has falls in creamy yellow with a white wash, standards in a watercolor-dreamy blend of apricot and violet ? and a deep apricot beard. Or ?Tequila Sunrise?, which has striking yellow-orange standards (they seem to shade from pale to deep tones) and falls that are deep violet but bordered in a toasty color ? gorgeous! So there really is an iris color to suit any sort of garden scheme.

Iris time comes in May and June, after all the spring glories have begun to fade. There is nothing as impressive as a collection of bearded iris ? showy as orchids ? blooming in the sunshine (and they will bloom in part shade, as well!) Not only that ? but you can grow these successfully not only in the north (Zone 4) but in Zone 10! All they really require is well-drained soil.

Growing

Bearded iris grow from rhizomes ? when they arrive you will see something looking a bit like a torn potato with buds. From those humble buds the flower and leaves will rise to glory. When an iris is done flowering that part of the rhizome is essentially all used up ? but it doesn’t stop ? instead the rhizome creeps out in all directions sending out more buds and more flowers.

For this reason, it takes only a couple of years to have a really glorious iris bed. Plant the rhizomes in equilateral triangles of three about 24″ to the side. At the base, plant two rhizomes with their roots facing into the triangle; at the point plant one with its roots facing into the triangle. Plant an upside down triangle of the same size next to it. In this way you are getting a good spacing for your plants, and allowing them room to grow. You can plant a whole bed this way and if you pay attention to form, it will not only look lovely, but if you choose colors with care it can look like a living rainbow.

Bearded irises prefer a light but medium rich soil ? they sulk in clay. When you plant them you don’t want to cover the entire rhizome ? some of it should still be visible on the surface of the garden bed. Make sure that they get at least 6 hours of sun a day ? the more sun, the more they flower.

Because they grow so quickly, they will probably need dividing in about three years ? in which case you have lots to share with friends. Or, if as so many people have done, you have become addicted to these beautiful flowers, you can start another iris bed.

These flowers really do look wonderful grown in masses in beds all to themselves. If you can’t bear to devote a whole bed to a one-season flower, fill in with annuals ? the fan-like spears of foliage will look great among mounds of petunias.

But they also look great used like exclamation points in the mixed border. If you want to draw attention to some feature in your garden, plant it near a bearded iris. The leaves will draw the eye right up to what you would like us to notice even if the iris isn’t blooming. Just be sure to leave them plenty of room to expand ? unless, like I do, you enjoy digging up your plants and rearranging them in an endless round of exterior decorating.

The one thing I hear people object to in bearded irises is that the foliage sometimes turns unsightly. This shouldn’t happen if you give the plant plenty of good air circulation and make sure not to overwater it, but not to let it get bone dry. These plants tolerate drought quite well ? but don’t put them through it if you don’t need to. And when you fertilize, DON’T use nitrogen ? or at least use a low ?nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is what leads to most of the problems you hear about with iris – avoid it and yours should sparkle! And if some of the leaves do die back, simply pull them off, or, as so many people like to do, trim the leaves into a fan shape ? they will put forth fresh, new foliage before you know it.

There probably isn’t an easier plant for creating a spectacular display than the bearded iris ? something grandma knew ? and so should you!

Debbie Van Bourgondien and “The Bulb Lady” are one and the same. For over 95 years, the Van Bourgondien family has specialized in providing high quality Dutch bulbs and perennials to discerning gardeners. Visit www.dutchbulbs.com to get a FREE subscription to their catalog.

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April 26, 2002

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What Do I Do With These Daffodils?

Guest post by Debbie Van Bourgondien “The Bulb Lady”

(Or tulips, or other spring bulbs?) It’s a sure sign that spring is here – my mailbox is full of spring bulb questions. Some of you have just discovered bulbs that you have forgotten to plant. Others have bulbs that they planted and now want to know what to do with them. Some of you have ones you planted a few years ago – and this year you didn’t get any flowers. And some of you lucky people in warmer climates are now staring at the yellowing foliage of your spring bulbs and wondering what to do about that. So this seems like a perfect time to cover some spring bulb basics. So I’m going to try to answer all of your questions here.

I forgot to plant these bulbs last fall! Now what do I do?

Don’t panic. Check your forgotten bulbs and see if they are still firm. Discard any that seem mushy or damaged. Then go plant the rest – right now!

OK – so you probably won’t get a spring display from them this year. They will be much happier in the ground than sitting in a bag, because in the ground they can be soaking up nutrients from the soil, and when they send up foliage they will benefit from the energy the sun gives them.

And if you’ve had them stored in a good, cool place all this time, they could surprise you. I’ve had reports of a daffodil, stored in the refrigerator and planted in early spring, then popping up and blooming in July.

My bulbs are up and almost finished flowering. Now what do I do?

Pick the flowers. And if the flowers are all shriveled up, remove the flowers and stems. If you leave the flowers on your tulips and daffodils after they are done blooming, they will spend a lot of time and energy creating seed. You would much rather have the plants send that energy back into the bulb to give you some great flowers for next year. So deadheading the spent blooms on your spring blooming bulbs not only makes for a tidier garden, but a healthier bulb.

When you remove the flower heads, leave the foliage right where it is. The foliage absorbs nutrients from the sun and air which feed the bulb. So even if they start to turn yellow and unsightly, you want those leaves to absorb all the sun and energy they can. Don’t braid it; don’t shove it under the mulch. Just leave it and plant things that will help to disguise them. Hostas and daylilies are very effective at this.

I planted bulbs last fall. They came up but they didn’t flower. What happened?

If those non-flowering bulbs were planted last fall, you probably have a soil (or added fertilizer) with too much nitrogen in it. Nitrogen encourages leafy growth at the expense of flowering. Have your soil tested – your agricultural agent can usually do this for a reasonable fee. And make sure that any bulb fertilizers you use has a higher second and third number (the P and K) that it does nitrogen (N). Numbers like 5-10-10 are good.

Another possibility is that your bulbs are in too much shade. Shade from deciduous trees is good, because the leaves won’t come out until the bulb is well into its flowering cycle. But bulbs planted near evergreen trees or in the shade of a house may not be giving the bulbs enough light.

And don’t forget that deer and rabbits sometimes like to snack on tulip buds – which are quite edible. Check to see if your bulb didn’t TRY to flower before it was devoured.

My bulbs have flowered beautifully for several years, but this year I had only a few blooms.

This means your bulbs are getting too crowded for optimal growing. Underground many spring bulbs are reproducing, creating new bulblets that then mature to blooming size. Pretty soon they are sitting in a mass of bulbs all trying to share a little bit of soil. So they need dividing.

Wait until the foliage has yellowed and withered completely. When it is pretty shriveled, in summer, is the time to dig up the bulbs and divide them. You’ll be amazed at how many more you have. Go ahead and plant them now – either spacing them out more evenly in their current spot, or spreading more around the property. Or share a few with neighbors and make them happy too.

If I deadhead my daffodils and tulips will I get more blooms?

A bulb is a wonderful package. It already holds the complete flower in it, just waiting for sun and warmth to call it out of the bulb. But that bulb can only hold that single flowering stem. So deadheading them will not get you more flowers next year. However, it will help you to have a stronger bulb for next year.

I received a potted tulip (or daffodil) as a gift. I’ve heard that once they have been forced I may as well throw them out. Is this true?

If your potted bulb is a paperwhite narcissus and you live in a cold climate, the answer is yes. Once forced a bulb exhausts itself and it is very difficult to get it to bloom again under forced conditions. In a warm climate, you can plant them outside and they may live to perform again. But this bulb is an exception.

With daffodils, tulips and hyacinths, your chances are quite good of getting that plant to live and bloom another year. Just plant the bulbs outdoors when they are finished and their foliage has died back. While they may not bloom next spring, you should see results the following year.

My tulips didn’t come back this year. I thought they were perennials.

Ah yes – but some tulips are more perennial than others. Many people grow tulips strictly as annuals. Others routinely dig them up when the foliage has died back and store them in a cool, dark place until fall in order to get a couple more seasons out of them. But some types of tulips, especially species tulips, (Fosteriana. Kaufmanniana, Greigii, Praestans and others) and Darwin Hybrids will come back for many years in succession if given proper planting at the proper depth (the Holland Bulb Council recommends 8 inches) in a well drained soil. In other tulip classes a few will perennialize, such as the lily flowered tulips ‘Ballade’ and ‘White Triumphator’ and the fringed tulips ‘Burgundy Lace’.

Another possible reason for tulips failing to return is that they have been eaten by underground burrowing creatures. Tulips are related to onions and are actually quite tasty. This is another good reason for the deep planting – it is below the depth to which most creatures will tunnel. Daffodils, on the other hand, are fairly foolproof, as they are poisonous and few animals will bother with them.

My bulbs came up – but some of them are not where I planted them.

See above. Critters often like to think of themselves as garden designers, and in their travels beneath your garden may move bulbs around if they get in their way.

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