Dormant bulbs

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:49:02 PDT
Rodger wrote
>In your shoes, I'd lift them all [colchicums] and pot them in barely 
>damp soil. If your move
>is anything like mine some 21 years ago, after you get into your new 
>place, you
>will find so many things that need attention that your bulbs are likely to be
>neglected for a season. In pots, they at least have a chance, as long as they
>are protected from the rain and any hard freezes.

I hope my move is a little different. The large species and hybrids 
of Colchicum, as well as the big daffodils, are all going into a 
narrow raised bed across most of the road frontage of the new garden, 
which a contractor with a truck and tractor is going to construct for 
me. I'm asking him to fill the bed to within a proper depth for 
planting these large bulbs (I have hundreds if not indeed thousands); 
then I'll set the bulbs in, and have him dump the remaining soil mix 
on top of them. I think I'll also add some Alstroemeria species for 
summer color, and perhaps some bearded iris species, and later I can 
plant a lot of Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, which rapidly makes a 
ground cover here and is lovely in fall with the colchicums. The bed 
will be bare only in the depth of winter -- when the weeds come up. 
Its retaining wall should keep the neighbors' cars off the rest of 
the front garden, which has been a problem for the tenants I've had 
in the house for a couple of years.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA



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