[pbs] Spring Anemones (A. blanda)
totototo at telus.net
totototo at telus.net
Wed Apr 8 15:55:22 EDT 2009
On 8 Apr 2009, at 12:43, Jim McKenney wrote:
> We are now approaching the 400th anniversary of the first permanent
> European settlements in what is now the State of Maryland. I cant cite a
> date, but I would not be surprised to learn that tulips of some sort have
> been grown in this state for at least three-hundred of those years.
[snip]
> By now our gardens should be stuffed with bulbs, bursting at the seams
> with bulbs; they should be so common that they cant be given away. But
> they are not.
Victoria is pretty good bulb growing territory but the only three bulbs the
gardens here are bursting with are bluebells (the grossly weedy Hyacinthoides,
formerly Endymion) the dreadfully weedy grape hyacinth, the proper name of
which I cannot be bothered to learn, and chionodoxa. Chiondoxa is a champ,
however, with its brilliant green-tinged blue.
Feral daffodils (many ancient cultivars otherwise found only in history books)
abound in neglected places and pump out quantities of hungry narcissus flies
come warm weather. As a result, the finer, more delicate narcissus cultivars
are eaten alive and cannot be expected to last into a second season.
Cyclamineus hybrids seem to do well, as do trumpet cultivars.
*Some* tulips persist in *some* gardens, but casual observation while driving
suggests that this depends on details of the site. The long term survivors seem
to be those cultivars derived from the smaller, earlier-flowering species.
Pinellia does not spread. Pinellia cordata dies within a few years in the open
garden, unable to cope with the incessant winter rain while dormant.
I rather doubt there is anyplace on the entire earth where the gardens are
bursting with bulbs as you describe. A lot of bulbous plants are delicately
dependent on details of the environment, and not all respond in the same way to
the same conditions. What is ideal for one is far from ideal for another.
However, I would be delighted to hear that I am wrong and that somewhere the
gardens are in fact bulb-bursting.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate
on beautiful Vancouver Island
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=48.4676,-123.3262&ll=48.4676,-123.3262&z=14
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