demise of an Erythronium border

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 09:24:02 PDT
Diane's note is a warning not to let Anemone nemorosa overtop delicate 
bulbs. Yet it also is a testament to the ability of bulbous plants to 
recover.

Demise was the wrong word. Unlike the notorious parrot, these 
erythroniums weren't dead, they were resting.

Jane McGary

Portland, Oregon, USA


On 4/9/2018 6:35 PM, Diane Whitehead wrote:
> About 40 years ago I planted two Erythronium revolutum.  Despite my sending seeds to several seed exchanges
> each year, they managed to seed themselves so that I had hundreds, and their pink flowers were one of
> the joys of spring every year.  Till last year.  I couldn't see any.  Had the deer eaten all the flowers?  But there
> weren't any leaves, either.
>
> Then I noticed Anemone nemorosa leaves along the whole border.  This is a wild form with incredibly long
> twiggy rhizomes, not the short-rhizomed named forms.  It had been way down at one end of the bed, and
> while I wasn't paying attention it had zoomed over the Erythronium territory where its intertwined rhizomes
> had completely blocked Erythronium access to the sky..  I began digging it out, and bucket loads went
> into the garbage. I cleared about a quarter of the area.
>
> Today there are ten wan-looking flowers and lots of single leaves in the cleared area.  I started clearing
> again.  It is going to take a couple of years for them to get their strength back.
>
>

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