digging up bulbs for the winter

So far I have only dug up calla lily bulbs, and some of the purple oxalis corms. The canna lily is still blooming. So I am going wait for a while.

The other bulbs to be dug up are the big elephant ears. I planted 6 bulbs this year. They have all grown very well. I would like to save the bulbs if I can. Has anybody ever dug them up for the winter and replanted them the next spring? I grew one years ago, but when I dug it up in the fall,. there was no bulb at all. It was just a lot of roots.

We have kept an elephant ears growing for several years now. We kept it planted in a large (plastic) pot and stick it in our attached but otherwise unheated garage. It goes dormant and revives each spring when we set it back outside and water it. Dont know what it looks like below ground.

I haven't dug any of my bulbs yet either. I't has been so damp and chilly and with no signs of frost so I have been holding out. Other than a few caladium bulbs that I pulled out of the window boxes.
Donner your EE's look great. Here are my Portadora

Whether this is 100% true or not---for those of you who have Cannas still blooming---let them be.

When the 1st frost comes--it will kill all the leaves and stems. Theu will just look all yukky.
At this time--you can cut the Cannas back to about 12" above ground---BUT--let it be another 2 weeks or so
before you dig up the bulbs.

From my "archive Memory banks"--this will allow the root-corms to bulk up and then you can dig them all up.
Do not try to clean them off by shaking the soil off. That may break apart the root-clumps.
You can remove some of the extra soil clinging on by hand--but, otherwise--let them air dry somewhere
and then store them in a box of peat moss or shredded newspapers for the winter.

Canna roots ARE really very fragile when it comes to them breaking off the main clump. Be gentle!

All the "One Eye" roots I have shared with you all are the result of this.
According to Allan Summers--a division should have at lease 3 "eyes" for a nice clump-to-be.

My neighbor--who is NOT a gardener of any form--bought 2 pots of orange/green leafed Cannas.
They are AWESOME!!!! They have been growing new stems and blooming away. Totally beautiful!!!

She is in Spain for now--for a long time. I asked her if she was going to dig these up--and she said "NO--
You can do what you want with them!"

I WILL dig these up and have them for my garden. When she is away--I always end up taking care of her garden anyway....

Lookie here!

Hey, Holly! Did you get that plant from Jurassic Park?

Dave, thanks for the tip. I will dig the elephant ears out and put them in pots. Will leave them in the garage to see if they are still alive next spring.

Gita, the one small canna lily you gave me has grown into a very big plant. I will leave it in the garden until frost hits it. If I leave the roots in the ground for another two weeks, I need to remember to dig them out. I forgot to do it last year and that was how I lost all my canna lilies :-(

This message was edited Oct 25, 2011 9:03 PM

Donnerville, I know I keep looking at them and thinking WOW. That Blushing Susie behind it really took off this year it was just a little seedling I got from Roses R Red.
Ric is using the GH to dry his glad bulbs and I finally got the rest of the caladium bulbs out of the pots and took them down there to dry out, too. I think I will pull the Tropical Water Lily bulbs out this morning. They are still blooming but I think I need to get them out now.

Holly--

If you can at all--I would love to have a start of the Blushing Suzy vine.
How is it propagated?

Thanks, Gita

Gita, RRR starts seeds in the spring an I usually get one from her. I'm not sure they would root from cuttings.

Yep, it is that time again. Thanks for the tips on the Canna's Gita. The two I received from you have done beautifully too and being someone who has lost them in the past, I too want to do right by them and over winter them in the correct way.

I have also kept Elephant Ears over the winter in the past too but over the years am now down to three small pots which didn't grow too large this year. Maybe putting in a large pot next year is called for. i wasted my money a few months back by purchasing two half price EE bulbs at Wally World. They never did the first thing for me. Dang!!! I love elephant ears.

From reading some of the other threads I see that those of you north of me went on a mad rush the last couple of days bringing in plants to prevent damage from the low temps and snow. I played it extra safe and have had things inside for a few weeks now.

Here is hoping that all our efforts will pay off and we are happily rewarded next spring with healthy plants.

Ruby

The snow killed the leaves of the elephant ears. I will see if I can dig them up and put them in the garage. The canna lily was blooming when the snow hit, and is looking pretty sad now. I may cut it down next weekend.

I left some bare calla lily bulbs outside and only remember it just now :-(

Sally---

What advice do you have for the Purple Oxalis????
All my potted ones are still outside...But the whole plant stand is covered with a sheet.
I just have not had the time to attend to them....

What is their cols tolerance? I KNOW they are going dormant--but how would this kind of cold affect them?
I don;t care if the leaves all droop and fall off. Will the corms be OK?

How would you recommend I store the corms? I am thinking --right in the pots they are in--somewhere cool and dark
Dark is all i can do. I have nowhere with any kind of light to store 7 pots of Oxalis....

Thanks, gita

Gita, I found this info on over wintering oxalis. Sally or Jill do you agree? The withhold water/dark cool storage is ok?
" In the fall, if the plant is not being overwintered in a bright indoor location, pots of oxalis bulbs can be allowed to dry off by withholding water. The pots should be moved inside before there is a danger that the bulbs will freeze, although the foliage can be exposed to frost as that will hasten its drying off. The pots with their bulbs can then be stored in a cool, dark location for the winter.

In early March the pots can be brought out of storage and watered. New growth will soon appear at which time the plants should be placed in strong direct light. By mid-May, when they are put outside, they will already be in bud. If the bulbs have been potted for a couple of years, they should be dumped out of their pots in the spring and the bulbs collected. They can be replanted, about three cm apart in new potting mix, and given water and good direct light to encourage growth."

There are so many lovely kinds!

Gita,

Oxalis has such beautiful leaves! I normally keep a pot or two inside as houseplants. If you have a sunny window for them, they will bloom throughout the winter, although they start to look sad toward the end of the winter.

The corms are dug up and put in a box or a pot filled with peat moss or potting soil. I do not water them during the winter. Just keep them in the garage. In early spring (late Feb?), I pot some up in little peat cups to give them an early start. It actually takes quite a long time for the corms to "wake up". You can pot them up in a larger container, such as a plastic shoebox, and transplant them out individually. I use peat cups because it is easier that way when I plant them out. In some years, I planted them in the groun directly, If the temperatuer gets warm before you get a chance to plant them, the potful of corms will start to grow and you get a tangled mess. Well, you saw that when I dumped the entire pot of corms on you this year :-)

About the hardiness of Oxalis, where I live now is on average about 3 - 5 degree colder than Baltimore. However, they rarely survived winters for me when I lived in Herndon VA which is slightly warmer than where I live now. Occassionally, one little piece out of the entire clump of corms survived and unexpectedly sent out a leaf the next spring. Of course that cannot be relied on as a means to preserve corms.

Oxalis is so easy to grow. I am sure we will have enough corms/plants for our entire group next spring :-)

Donner

I have kept a pot of Oxalysis alive for four or five years now. I do the same as Donnerville and keep my pot as a houseplant. Yep, sure does get scraggly looking during the cold winter months. I can't really say what accounted for it doing so great this past summer. The only change made was taking a few corms and potting in other pots. They must have really been shouting at me for a couple of years that they needed dividing because the result has been pot after pot of really lovely leaves and blooms.

Yep, I imagine that the plants in the garden which were still in bloom looked pretty well beaten up after the snow storm you all had.

Ruby

I finally brought in a wire rack from outside and it now sits by my kitchen side door That I never use.
Put ALl the Oxalis pots on it (10 or 11). On the top shelf--I put 3 pots of CC. so they get a bit more light.
Don't really care how much light the Oxalis get. They will have to deal with what I have to give them....

Not in a picture-taking mood today. Will try to later....

Have to also get a package ready to send a couple brug Cuttings to Linda ("lindasplants") in FL.
Had planned to do it today--but got busy with the garden.---it was a decent, sunny day.

Work tomorrow 1-6PM and them my other eye surgery is on Thursday--My daughter arrives
Saturday (the one who lives in Seattle) and will stay a week. She is here for her 25th HS Reunion.
I only see her about once every 3 years. So--I took the whole week off.....

Gita

Dear Gita - I hope the eye surgery goes well for you. How exciting that your daughter will be visiting. Of course you want to be at home with her as much as possible. I don't blame you a bit for taking time off. I hope that she has fun at the Reunion. The Reunions I have attended were always lots of fun. I was amazed when attending our 20th, a first time for me. The event I attended was a field party next to a river. I came home thinking that twenty years later, no one much had changed. Folks still hanging with basically the same groups as HS and doing basically the same things they did in HS. So funny.

I am now out of HS for 37 years. Amazing beyond belief. Most days I feel emotionally the same as I did during that time. I very often dream of being back in high school and always have some sort of crisis going on. Not sure what it means and don't really spend a lot of time worrying about it, I just find it interesting that it occurs so often.

Take good care and keep us updated on the surgery.

Ruby

Ruby---

I NEVER dream of being back in HS! It was a hard, transitional time in my life...
I could barely speak English! I was in a "culture shock". and I had not yet even scratched the surface of
life in the USA.
I had few friends.....and do not remember the ones I had. They were accepting and kind to me...but I was too engrosed
in all the people of Latvian descent and all those get-toghethers to ever want to do anything else.

The last reunion I went to was our 50th. I never went to the 55th one.
Paid my $65 and then forgot to go. Too funny! Too sad!!!
I went to an All Girls HS. No men have ever been at any of our reunions....WHY???? Stupid!!!

Gita

Shoot, I am of the mind that I am not sure I would care too much about attending an all women's get together either. hahaha Just kidding.....I like women but have always been a friend to a lot of males too.

I cannot say why I might spend so much of my dream time re-living those years and dreaming of the people I associated with then. I just know it is more than I would guess is normal though my son tells me he also dreams of high school quite often.

I shared with a cousin just recently that I often dream of people who have already passed too. She said she and her sister did that also and she has heard it runs in families. How strange.....all of it. I try to use the opportunity when folks are brought to my mind to pray the next day or so for them or if they are deceased, I try to remember to pray for their loved ones still living. Didn't know what else to do with images appearing to me so often and figured a little prayer won't hurt any of us.

If we have any interpreters, I am game. I wouldn't pay money for someone to interpret my dreams though, but will listen if anyone has any ideas. hahaha

Ruby

Dreams????? You have NO idea of the complexity and colorfulness my dreams have...
They can be SO interesting--and so Retrospective....

I often remember my dreams when i wake up--and once wrote them down--filled 4 pages.
I thought this particular dream was very significant....

You know what they say about dreams--they are all the suppressed thoughts and feelings we have in the awake state.
MAN! I should blush at all those thoughts....

Another interesting thing I find about dreams----I NEVER see myself in them--yet I know i am there
and am participating in them. It is as if I am videoing for everyone else to see the "film"...with me in it.

Maybe we should have a Thread about dreams????? What do you think?

Gita

Sure Gita, start one and I will participate. I too have mostly dreams where I don't see myself either but experience exactly what you are saying.....in on the action but never seen.

Ruby

Would there be an interest in a Thread on dreams?

Might be embarrassing to fess up what our minds create while we sleep.....
I know I would not want too........ahem....
Gita

Oh I forgot my Oxalysis It was in a mixed planting that I had decided not to bring inside for the winter. I had planed on taking it out of that pot and bringing it in. I had no idea that they were bulbs that could be stored over winter like that. We still haven't dug the cannas or OSP.

Holly, there are probably enough Oxalis corms between Gita and myself for everybody in our group. Make sure you remind us that you want some next year. I have been growing Oxalis for years and years and never bothered to keep more than a few that I needed. Gita is the one who got our entire group excited about this plant and now I regret throwing away all the corms over the year :-(

donner---

You can get most of them back from me next year. I counted 11 pots that I brought inside.

Holly--wait until you dig yours out of your mixed planter pot! You will be surprised how well the Oxalis
has rooted in over the summer....
They also make these large, translucent roots (water storage??) besides the little corms. Blew me away!

here--look at these....