Landscaping with Bulbs--TOW

Boyce Tankersley btankers@chicagobotanic.org
Tue, 07 Oct 2003 06:28:45 PDT
We've got some beautiful examples of Colchicum coming up through various groundcovers and between clumps of some of the smaller growing Pennisetum grasses ... sort of a 'prairiesque' effect but quite effective. I would recommend replacing your turf with prairie plants (or plants that duplicate the growth and flowering habits of prairie plants). The daffs will be up and flower before the prairie plants start to get too large and the Colchicums will elongate their tubes to 'peak' through the smaller statured plants. The effect is very ornamental and provides for season long interest (year round really if you don't remove the dried grasses, etc. until just before the daffs start to appear.

Wished you and Irma lived closer. We have some beautiful examples currently in the Garden.

Boyce Tankersley
btankers@chicagobotanic.org

-----Original Message-----
From: J.E. Shields [mailto:jshields104@insightbb.com]
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 5:48 PM
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: Re: [pbs] Landscaping with Bulbs--TOW


Hi all,

I'm not really into landscaping, but whatever one does, the result is some 
sort of landscape, good or bad.

For instance:

I planted about 1000 Narcissus bulbs in clusters of 5 to 7 bulbs in grassy 
areas about 4 or 5 years ago.  They are actually in two swaths, one on each 
side of my property.  One is between the line fence and our gravel lane 
going to the nursery in back.  It must be about 8 to 10 feet wide and 50 to 
75 feet long.  The other swath is of similar dimensions but runs diagonally 
in front of an open line of trees and shrubs from the front corner of our 
property toward the corner of our house.

They look very nice when in bloom, and we do not cut the grass and weeds in 
those areas until the foliage has started to yellow off.

I don't see much increase in the bulbs so far.  I assume this is due to 
inadequate fertilizer and excessive competition from grass.

Right now we have colchicums in bloom, many of them naturalized in the 
grass too.  I think they are particularly attractive that way, but again we 
don't mow in those areas until the foliage yellows off in July each 
year.  This is a serious disadvantage to naturalizing bulbs in lawn areas, 
no matter what species of bulbs you are using.  The tall grass and weeds 
look pretty lousy in June and July.

Does anyone have some advice for future naturalizing projects?

Regards,]
Jim Shields
in central Indiana

At 01:14 PM 10/6/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear All:
>
>We've seen Crocus and other small bulbs naturalized in greenswards. Click
>here to view the most beautiful presentation of naturalized Tulipa that I
>have ever seen. http://www.hillkeep.ca/bulbs%20tulipa.htm
>
>They're in the garden of my friend Jim Swayne, who lives in eastern
>Washington state, USA, where winters are cold and dry and summers are hot
>and dry. He gets 8-20" of rain a year. This is perfect for Tulipa and
>many other Central Asian bulbs, and makes it sensible to grow a xeric lawn
>of Buffalo grass, as he has done.
>
>I have other pictures of Jim's tulip lawn, but he's away, so I can't ask his
>permission to publish them right now.
>
>Bulbs that tolerate a wetter winter do very well with us here in
>southwestern
>BC; I hope to have time later to post about them, too.
>
>Paige Woodward
>on top of Chilliwack Mountain
>in southwest British Columbia
>Canada
>wet Zone 6
>
>http://www.hillkeep.ca/
>paige@hillkeep.ca
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pbs mailing list
>pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php

*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92              WWW:    http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344     or      toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA
Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP

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