It’s Spring

TheReview

Wednesday, March 21,1990 — C12

oummer-flowering bulbs easy to grow

Let’s talk about summer flower-
ing bulbs, planted in spring with
some of them flowering until frost
blackens their greenery. These
bulbs, or corms, or tubers might be
dahlias, gladiola, tuberous bego-
nias, acidanthera, tigridia, ixias,
lilies, montbretia, crown imperial
(the high and mighty sounding
friullaria imperialis!) or the unu-
sual galtonia candicans, or the one
sometimes referred to as the pin-
eapple plant, eucomis.

It is interesting, especially if you
have been gardening for years, to
try something different.

Most of these bulbs are easy to
grow, although some of them
aren't really hardy here (tigridia,
begonias, galtonia, acidanthera,

Sweet peas and much more

ixlas and eocomis) and have to be
lifted each fall and stored in a
frost-free place until spring.

Wait until your soil is warm
before attempting to plant any of
these bulbs, and I have found it
best to put things such as tigridia,
acidanthera and ixias in large pots
so that when they flower they may
be moved into a spot where their
beauty can be enjoyed daily, and
then moved elsewhere when flow-
ering ceases. :

Lilies must be one of the hardi-
est of all the bulbs. We had
magnificent tiger lilies as far
North as Prince George, and they
could be relied upon to produce
abundantly no matter how frigid
the winter. One thing that lilies

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TheReview

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must have is well-drained soil, and
they really prefer a sunny location,
and some fertilizer when they pop
through the soil in spring, and
again in early August.

Don’t get granular fertilizer on
the leaves as it may burn them.

Dahlias prefer a soil that has
been amended with a generous
helping of rotted cow manure.
They are a very Satisfactory plant,
coming in many heights, and
flower size, and blooming until cut
down by frost. The tall ones
Should be staked at planting time,
and the stalks loosely tied to the
stake as they grow.

They need as much sunshine as
you can provide but will scttle for
half a day’s sun if thats all that is

available. Lets talk now about
tuberous begonias, those expen-
sive little bulbs that in theory
should have been planted, inside,
in February.

Never mind, plant them now,
they will come on like mad as the
weather warms up, and you really
shouldn’t put them outside until
the end of May anyway. Tuberous
begonias are probably our longest

flowering bulbs. We had a beauti-
ful begonia hanging basket that
was still flowering in November. . .
a little bedraggled by then, but
blooming none-the-less.

Do add both bone meal and
blood meal to your begonia potting
mix which should also contain one
third peatmoss, one third vermi-

culite plus one third sterile polling

soil.

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