After Danger Of Frost?

Hoping someone can clarify. I've been buying all these partial shade plants for what I hope to be a decent bog garden.

Included are some Elephant ears, Caladium, and Calla Lilies.

Lowes is my source of bulbs for now. It shows a planting chart saying my locale is safe for planting March to May, but then I read up on more information about these plants and it says "after the danger of frost" The question is, and I've seen all sorts of numbers for germination rates, is it safe to get them in the ground right now? Is the soil temp the real factor in when these things start to grow? My average last frost date the last ten years is somewhere around April 24.

Maybe they won't start popping through the ground until mid May or so? In that case the frost issue is mute?

Safe? or wait?

You can make out where the water lays after rain..brownish color, inside circle. If it dries out too much I can just pump water from the creek.

Any other tips for a newbie? I heard bulbs don't like to sit in standing water so I plan on sticking them in the ground on the edge of where the water sits. It usually drains after a few days, but remains moist.

Thanks:)

I would wait until after the last frost to plant summer blooming bulbs. Some bulbs can hand dampness. Siberian Iris and LA iris prefer it. So do turtleheads (perennial, not bulb). Cannas (not Callas) like moisture, lots of folks plant these around the air conditioner, but they tend to prefer sun. Don't know about callas and moisture, mine are in pots. Elephant ears are supposed to like moisture, but I haven't tried these until this year (bought a black ear at Lowes, will plant it after last frost).

You have a beautiful area to develop! We look forward to updated pictures.

You can plant the Calla bulbs now. I have about 100 Calla and they stay in ground. The only ones that ever gave me a problem is if they stayed too wet.
Caladium shouldnt be planted until the night temps are 60+ and days around 80. The bulbs do not like the cold and will rot easily. They do love their water though but only after they have 1-2 leaves.

chris

Thanks for the advice. Nice to hear from experience!

"You have a beautiful area to develop!"

Yea, but I'm not 25 anymore...it's a fun challenge. This place was all wooded three years ago. Actually chilly in the summer because of the tree cover, dampness, and creek. But I just came from Florida after 30 years...brrrrgh. This thing kind of beat me (pic) up the past two days. I need more sunny spots for seedlings I have in hoop houses. Too much shade around here.

More landscape projects on the way.

When you have some sun, this is my favorite drought tolerant plant that will reseed and bloom in late summer through fall.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/318/

I save seeds if you want some.

EE's bulbs can take a frost but they really don't grow until the temps go up to about 80. Caladium likes it hot and they will not over winter in a damp area. Both of those need to be pulled up in the fall and stored (easy) and they don't really need to be back out planted until it gets fairly warm. Soil temp does play a role I think but I'm not sure. My soil temp doesn't go much under 55 most years so I'm not really sure what will happen in your area.

Just an idea. If you have small sunny spots in your bog area cannas will do well but they need at least half day sun probably a little more than that.

Looks like that area may get ruled out. It gets no direct sun but lot's of reflected light. Tree foliage cover is about 30 feet up.

I have another spot. In fact there's a spring on the opposite side (see damp area upper left) of this area. Soil very wet at 12 inches but progressively drier (still moist) to the top.

KD, how do you pump water from the creek?

3/4 horsepower pump bought at Ace hardware. I just find a nice flat rock submerge it about eight inches and wallah. I did a lot of this in the summer of '08 because the main spring (house water) up the hill was getting low. One day I plan to do something else, as the portable pump is a pain to tote around and hook up. A water wheel up the creek is an idea I've been kicking around, but when it pours the creek gets massive with a very strong current.

pump

http://cabininthemountains.blogspot.com/2008/08/lawn-in-woods-and-mountains.html

Yes...thanks so much for that info! We have a creek nearby too. I thought about damming it up some, and pumping from it.