Spring Bulbs

The weather is certainly getting cooler, but there are still some nice days to get out into the garden and now is the time to plant spring bulbs!
Here are some general guidelines for planting bulbs.

• Bulbs don’t typically like heavy soil. If you are dealing with clay, definitely amend with compost or peat to loosen the soil and improve the drainage.
• Bulbs should be planted at a depth of 2-3 times their height. For example, from base to top Crocus corms are about 1″ tall and should be planted 3″ deep. Daffodils are 2-3″ tall and should be planted about 6″ deep.
• Bulb-tone is a great fertilizer that has all of the nutrients that bulbs need to look amazing. Apply at planting time according to label directions.
• Bulbs should be watered in after planting to settle the soil, don’t compact the soil using your hands, feet, shovel etc! Bulbs like a loose soil and compacted soil can impede their growth in spring.
• In general bulbs are frost tolerant when they emerge in spring, you shouldn’t need to protect them unless we are going to have a hard freeze.
• After blooming, leave the foliage to grow until it turns yellow and the bulbs start to go dormant. The bulbs need energy for the next season, and the foliage produces important nutrients and carbohydrates that the bulb stores until the next year.

There are a number of handy tools for planting bulbs that can make your job a whole lot easier as well. My favorite is the Protech 24″ bulb planter drill bit. It’s a 2 3/4″ auger bit that works on corded or cordless drills that is great for planting large single bulbs or 2-3 smaller bulbs very quickly. 



An indispensable tool is a Hori Hori.  This is a Japanese garden knife and it's an indispensable tool that no gardener should be without!  It is great for digging, dividing, weeding, root-pruning and a huge list of other chores- including bulb planting.



I also like this great trowel/transplanter made by Green Thumb. It has a narrow blade with inch and centimeter markings and is serrated on one side. It works great for planting bulbs and perennials. It’s sturdy cast aluminum with a rubberized handle and has a 5 year warranty.
 


And what about the bulbs themselves? What should you plant? Besides the myriad of Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, & Crocuses in a wide range of colors there is a huge number of lesser known bulbs.

One of my favorite bulbs is Surprise Lily or Resurrection Lily, Lycoris squamigera. I've posted about them before.

I'm also a big fan of pretty much all of the Fritillaria species.  The one most people are familiar with is F. imperialis, which is the large flowered yellow, orange, or red species.  2 others that I grow are F. persica with 24" tall spikes of clustered black flowers (or the very rare ivory flowered variety) and F. asyriaca which features nodding black bells with a golden-yellow rim on 12" stems.

There are a number of great ornamental onion plants (or Allium), many are familiar with the giant globe onions like ‘Globemaster’ or ‘Gladiator’, but there are some great small varieties as well.  Most of the ornamental onions start to bloom in late May to early June.

Blue onion, Allium azureum, is a great azure blue flowered species that reaches about 22″ tall. This is one of the most striking onions due to its flower color. It is however a notorious self-seeder, but it pulls easily. It is also great for naturalizing in a wildflower garden.

Allium moly is a unique small yellow-flowered onion that grows up to 15" tall.  This one can also be a little bit of a self-seeder so deadhead, pull unwanted seedlings, or let it naturalize.

Allium siculum is a neat onion that reaches 24-34" in height and features pendulous, creamy blooms with a reddish center. 

Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, are one of the first bulbs to bloom. They have small, white, nodding flowers that often emerge in March and April when there is still snow on the ground.

Camassia quamash 'Blue Melody' is a late spring to early summer flowering bulb that tolerates moist soil and clay. Beautiful variegated grass-like foliage is followed by starry blue flowers. ‘Blue Melody’ is a fairly good grower that offsets freely, but takes some time to start blooming well.

Nearly everybody is familiar with tulips, but there are some smaller tulips that look little like the flower you’ve seen in gardens. Tulip ‘Lilac Wonder’ is a great species tulip that makes a great addition to rock gardens and the front of flower borders. Mine usually top out at 6-8″.

This is just a small sampling of the amazing diversity of spring bulbs.  I highly recommend seeking out some different bulbs this fall and giving them a try.

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Botanophilia now has some super snazzy t-shirts available!  Check them out!

A visit to the Green Bay Botanic Garden - Pt 2 The Plants

GBBG has no shortage of cool plants.  There were far too many for me to talk about, so here are some of my favorites that I haven't seen before or are just not real common.


First up was a pair of Pinus sylvestris 'Mitch's Weeping' flanking the path just outside of the visitor's center.  Despite their susceptibility to pine needle scale and European pine sawfly, I like scotch pine quite a bit.  It has beautiful orange flaky bark and great needle color, and this weeping variety shows off both to great effect!  I can't wait to see them get bigger!

Next up Calycanthus 'Hartlage Wine', a wonderful hybrid between C. floridus and C. chinensis, was still in bloom with huge rosy colored flowers.  Some references state a mild fragrance, but detected none at all.  The flowers are much larger than C. floridus and lighter colored, foliage is similar to both parents. The plant at GBBG seems to be performing quite well, and was nearly 8' tall x 6' wide.  After finally seeing one, this is definitely a future addition to the catalog!

 In the orchard remnant I came across one of my favorite under-used shrubs.  Variegated Five-Leaf Aralia, Eleuthrococcus sieboldianus 'Variegatus', is a wonderful addition to any shade or partial shade garden.  The variegated foliage helps brighten up dark corners.  It can grow to be about 6-8 tall x 6' wide and has a somewhat arching habit.  Some selective pruning when young will make it a bit more dense.  Greenish-white flowers appear in spring, but are not showy.  This is a very adaptable and easy-care shrub that deserves more use.  It will hopefully be added to the 2013 catalog.

Also in the orchard remnant Geranium yoshinoi 'Confetti' was happily taking up real estate as a seeding groundcover.  A very cute species with small pink flowers and subtly variegated foliage.  From the fact that it was pretty much everywhere in this section of the garden, it's apparent that this little cutie needs post-flowering birth control.  It could make a great ground-cover under larger shrubs or small trees.  It apparently comes true from seed, so it could be useful for breeding other variegated Geraniums as well.  Any interest in us adding this one?

 I loved this combination of Rhus typhina 'Tiger Eyes' and Agastache 'Bolero'.  'Tiger Eyes' will spread and take up lots of room eventually, but the color and texture of it is amazing.  'Bolero' makes a great filler plant since its a very airy variety and doesn't take up a lot of real estate.  It looks to be doing quite well in Green Bay, definitely a zone 5 hardy variety.  As with all Agastache, good drainage is a must.

Thriving in the orchard was Chinese wild ginger Asarum splendens, a plant that is often listed as zone 6.  With rich, well-drained soil it makes it through our zone 5 winters just fine.  Winter mulch may be helpful as the foliage is semi-evergreen.  Clean up the bad foliage in spring to make room for new growth.  I found this species to be somewhat slow for me, but others report it being vigorous.  I think our winters probably slow it down a bit, but it still makes a great groundcover for the shade.

 Sambucus 'Black Lace' was looking great.  Another great shrub from Proven Winners.  This one can be a fast-growing beast- plant it carefully- it will reach 10-12' tall and wide quickly!  Plant it in partial shade for best color.  It might get some die-back in the winter, just prune it off to new growth in spring and it will quickly recover.

 Athyrium 'Ghost' is a fantastic hybrid between Japanese painted fern A. nipponicum pictum and lady fern A. felix-femina.  It has a great upright habit and frosty green fronds.  Give it rich soil with consistent (not wet!) moisture and it will perform amazingly.

One of my favorite grasses is Korean feather reed grass, Calamagrostis brachytricha.  Great upright fluffy seed heads top slightly arching foliage.  It prefers full sun to partial shade and looks great with other grasses, coneflowers, black-eyed susans, and large hostas.  For me they usually hit 3-4' tall x 3' wide. 

 Hanging out across the way was Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' and Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips'.  The turtle-head looks like it had been pinched as it was under 3' tall.  Usually 'Hot Lips' reaches nearly 4' tall x 5' wide for me.  It's a great late-blooming flower for partial shade, starting to show color in early August and continuing into September.  Probably the best Chelone for garden use, we still have a number of them available!

 We came across this nice mass planting of green coneflower, Echinacea 'Green Jewell'.  They look great as stand-alone plants in the garden, but backed by dark foliage the green flowers can really pop!  It was nice to see this performing well and at a good mature size of 3' tall.

 Yellow wax bells, Kirengeshoma palmata, is a wonderful fall-blooming shade plant.  These are obviously young, as my 10 year old clump reaches about 4' tall and is 4' wide.  It makes a great backdrop for hostas and ferns.  The yellow pendulous flowers really liven up the shade garden in fall when there isn't much going on flower-wise.  We should have this for sale next year.

 We saw a number of different Lobelia cultivars.  This one is 'Fan Burgundy' and looked great near the pond.  We also saw 'Ruby Slippers' which at 4' was the tallest variety I've seen.  There was also one that looked to be 'Monet Moment' which is a wonderful pink variety.  All Lobelia prefer rich soil with                                                                                consistent moisture to perform well.

I was excited to spot this nice patch of Oenothera fremontii 'Shimmer' since I picked up this variety this year.  The fine textured foliage looks great with broader leaved plants and the large yellow flowers are beautiful.  'Shimmer' will spread out from a central crown to about 24" wide and should start blooming in June.  Flowers are produced sporadically all season and are fragrant in the evening.  (Hence the common name of evening primrose).

Throughout the garden were amazing large clumps of Cassia didymobotrya, popcorn cassia.  This is an awesome tropical senna that smells amazingly like buttered popcorn when brushed up against!  Full sun and well drained soil are best.  This thing is an awesome addition to combo pots or as accents in the garden where you can smell it and be hungry!

 Another annual that was everywhere was the native Impatiens capensis, spotted touch-me-not.  Named because the seed pods pop with explosive force, shooting the seeds everywhere.  Many people are surprised to learn that we have Impatiens growing naturally in the state, this is one of 2 species found here.  It's a favorite of hummingbirds and is usually found growing in moist shady sites.

 GBBG has a fairly good sized specimen of one of my favorite trees, striped maple Acer pennsylvanicum.  Striped maple is a nice small tree to 30' tall x 25' wide and features beautiful green bark striped with white fissures.  The three-lobed leaves are large, up to 8" long and wide and turn a beautiful yellow in the fall.  It prefers partial shade and well-drained soils.

They had a number of fantastic roses in the garden as well.  Most weren't looking great anymore due to being late in the season, but this 'Eyeconic Lemonade' was showing off for us.  This is a neat new class of shrub roses hitting the market now.  I didn't see much blackspot or mildew on them, but it is reportedly susceptible.  They also had quite a collection of Easy Elegance roses, but I didn't take any pictures.

That's it for this trip, if you're in the area take time to make it to the gardens!  You won't be disappointed.

A visit to the Green Bay Botanic Garden - Pt 1 The Views

With a little time off, Diane & I decided to take a trip to the Green Bay Botanic Garden, seeing as neither of us had ever been there.  It's a really nice garden; the layout is well done, they have lots of neat plants, and everything is pretty well labeled and maintained.  Part 1 is a pictorial journey through some views and features.  Part 2 will be some of the plants.  Onward!

We found a nice collection of conifers near the entrance.  I didn't take pictures of specific varieties, but there was a nice selection of dwarf and smaller varieties.

 They had a nice area with edible and medicinal plants with a knot garden in the center.  I didn't take a pic of the knots, as they look quite young and unimpressive at the moment.  Once they mature they will look great though!  Also in this area was a small fairy garden.  Not a trend I'm going to delve into myself, but it was cool to see.  And if it gets kids interested in gardening, all the better! 

Next up... random views from our walk around the garden...

I'm not sure how I feel about the small smoke-bush here... I think it needs to be edited out.  Then again, it might be cool later in life.  

   

A very cool gazebo.  One of the great things about GBBG is the number and quality of garden structures and buildings.  

I'm also a fish geek and they have a great pond with some awesome koi!

They have a fairly good sized children's garden.  Lots of cool sculptures, painted twigs, and educational fun for the kids.  And being that I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, one of my favorite features of the garden:  The hobbit hole inspired restroom!

 

The Shade garden was very nice, a great collection of hostas and unusual plants. 

I loved this Polygonum sp. they had in a few places.  I didn't see a tag on any of them, but I didn't look very hard either.  Lots of great grasses around too, including 2 of my favorites from the trip: Miscanthus sinensis 'Huron Sunrise' and Pennisetum macrourum 'White Lancer'.  

One of the last shots I took for the day.  This garden is truly worth a visit, keep in mind it's still a fairly young garden!  

New varieties added to the catalog

We just aded 3 new plants to the catalog!  These were going to be 2013 additions, but are ready a bit earlier.

 Still working on a few others for 2013...  Hosta 'Marilyn Monroe', Carex siderosticha 'Silver Streams', Carex flacca 'Blue Zinger', Schisandra chinensis just to name a few.  What neat plants would you like us to offer in the future?