TOW N.H.Do in May - Garden

Diane Whitehead voltaire@islandnet.com
Mon, 03 May 2004 15:32:40 PDT
In general, but particularly for Pacific Northwest North America and 
Western Europe -

DEADHEAD
Snap off the dead flowers of any bulbs you don't want to set seed. 
The stems of tulips and daffodils photosynthesize and therefore do 
their bit towards next year, but if you need to maintain a show 
garden, you can cut off the stems near the base, or even dig up 
tulips and replant them out back so they can finish their yearly 
cycle out of view.


CATCH
the seeds of early flowering bulbs by enclosing the pod in a little 
bit of  nylon stocking.

Snowdrops and fall-blooming crocus will be ripe soon. If you tied the 
snowdrop pods to skewers last month, they will be easily seen.  If 
you didn't, visualize how tall the flower was, and search around the 
plants at an equivalent distance to find the pod where it fell over. 
Crocus seedpods are down at ground level, or a bit below if you've 
mulched.

Anemone nemorosa and kin, (and also the non-bulb Hepatica) produce 
naked seeds on the outside of the receptacle.  A piece of nylon 
stocking will catch these when they fall, and they should be sown 
soon after falling.  If you are not going to be giving the seeds to 
someone else, you might as well let the seeds drop and germinate 
around the mother plant, and then move the seedlings later.


FERTILIZE
Fertilize any bulbs that still have green leaves with something like 
6-10-10 as they are storing nutrients for next year.  Crocus and 
other corms must replace the corm each year.

SEPARATE
crowded clumps of spring bulbs when the leaves have died, and you can 
still see where they are.  Dig them up with a fork and gently pull 
them apart, then space them out in soil you've amended with compost. 
You can also store them dry for the summer, something I have no 
experience of.

PLANT
Dahlias, callas, crocosmia and cannas can be planted out. Dahlias 
will flower prodigiously till frost, but other summer bulbs that 
flower only once, like  gladiolus and tigridias can be planted 
several times for a succession of flowers.


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