I'm into alliums---just received my box full from Touch of Nature--Globemaster, Gladiator, Mount Everest.
Also have two big unopened boxes from Scheepers, and in these are my Eremurus (5), and my Double daffodil mixture (100) and my white daffodil mixture (100) for my cutting garden...Oh, and my Orienpet Lilies and Oriental lilies.
I'm excited. Can you tell?! LOL
So tell us what you're putting in?!
OK, time to confess! what bulbs did you order this fall?!
I ordered 9 different species tulips - I dont plant hybrid tulips - like things that naturalize and bloom early! 10 bulbs in a bag so that is already 90 bulbs!
1 bad of Rynveld Early Sensation Narcissus (25) and a bag of mixed daffs(50!) I am working on a border of daffodils along the lower level of rundlestone rock that curves across my front yard - trouble is I cant always find where i planted the daffs in past year cause the foliage is gone! Note to self - mark the daffs next year!
Alliums: Cristophii (4) restrained myself there this year. I love alliums!
And 2 free bags of a species tulip and muscari. Have been working at getting them planted for 2 weeks now! Still have 4 bags of tulips to go and I gave away some too!
t, I'm so glad you started this thread; you'd mentioned recieving your bulbs on another thread and the first thing I thought was "what'd ya get?!" I love fall bulbs and how the keep the hope of spring alive all winter for me. Your allium selection sounds wonderful and I can't wait to see how you combine them! I have 50 Allium azureum syn. A. cairuleum ordered and am hoping they're as true a blue as described.
I'm really fond of double daffs to and am adding 'Tahiti' and 'Texas' this year. Most of them are fragrant making them extra attractive to me.
In tulips I'm concentrating on species that perennialize well. Now I have 'Tarda'(45) and T. humilis'Persian Pearl' (30) ordered, but I'm still wanting to get a few others. I understand the Darwin Hybrids are some of the best large tulips for reliable return, so I'll probably stick to the Impression series. The bed I'm wanting all those warm tones for has a mole problem and the soil is loose, organic, and moisture retentive; a dream to plant in, but not a good tulip area. So I'm kind of stuck on those.
Otherwise I'm mostly sticking to small bulbs. More crocus, muscari, and squills. The Eremerus has been calling me to, so we'll soon see!
Much will be dictated by clearance sales! Happy fall planting, Neal.
Jeez---Seems like species tulips are THE bulb for this year. I can't wait to see the pics next spring. They make a lot of sense and are so pretty in their own right. I saw several articles in Horticulture and the other mags touting them...I, of course, did not order any because they are deer candy (hence, my large order of allium)...so I am suffering envy at your descriptions.
fancyfan--I can't wait to see pics of your rock wall come spring. Sounds like a lovely array.
As for my allium combinations, I am basically plagiarizing the recommendations in the White Flower Farm catalog--planting them with peonies, siberian iris, white camassia, and two or three kinds of allium...we'll see what happens. Oh, and I planted 40 gladiators and mount everests in my hosta bed, too, a la WFF. (I never have an original idea, it seems.) Now that I read this, I think I over did the allium thing!
I am going to have to dig a new super well draining super sunny bed for the Eremurus. They sound like they are demanding and moody.
OK, who else?!
I ordered...uh....a few.....bulbs from ParkBulb and Brent and Becky's. Six varieties, all tulips, and they're going in the ground this weekend. I got Tarda, Princeps, Golden Apeldoorn, Decora, Pieter de Leur, and Cashmir. I like red and yellow. Did I mention I got 60 of each. Oh dear.
Oh dear is right. You won't BELIEVE how many bulbs I ordered this fall.
12 Kniphofia
20 Azure Allium
40 Dutch Iris
20 Ipheion
2 Robert Swanson Orienpet Lilies
8 Red Riding Hood Tulips
5 Excelsior Oriental Lilies
25 Oriental Beauty Iris
25 Silvery Beauty Iris
10 Hermione Tulips
50 Tommas Barr's Purple Crocus
10 Avalon Daffodils
6 Red Magic Hyacinths
10 Pink Fountain Fringed Tulips
25 Blend of Pinks Tulips
20 Lady Jane Clusiana Tulips
10 Leen Van Der Mark Triumph Tulips
10 Fall-blooming Crocus (these were free)
10 Deirdre Tulips
10 China Town Tulips
50 Chinodoxa lucilea (Glory of the Snow)
10 Triteleia
5 Muscadet Oriental Lilies
8 Muscari (these were free)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ordered from Scheepers:
25 crocus sieberi tricolor
25 muscari armeniacum
50 tulip turkestanica (had these before and miss them.)
10 narcissi Bell Song
10 narcissi Passionale
hippeastrum Fairy Tale, Melusine, Amputo, Pink Floyd, Emerald.
Someone recommended allium thunbergii (anyone know it and can advise me? Want fall bloom and blue).
I ordered only from Old House Gardens this year - but that was so long ago I forget what I ordered. They've had 'supplier delays' like maybe bad weather in Holland. I know they're in DG top 30 but I think I heard about DG from them and not the other way around! I love their line "where else can you buy something 300 years old for so little?" and every time you add something to your cart, it says "thank you for helping preserve the heritage of antique bulbs" or something like that. At least you got thanked for putting things in your cart! I bought the purple crocus sampler or tapestry and some species tulips. Oh, and my husband bought some bags of tulips from HD.
kbaumle - Oh, you make me feel so much better! I love some of those tulip varieties.
On the earlier post I conveniently left out all the iris that are already in. Planting 80 iris rhizomes was a Labor Day weekend project.
Next year -- CROCUS! Or daffodils, or knifophia or...... Off to check out Old House Gardens.
Oh, I forgot the Amaryllis! 'Papilio'
McGlory, I dug up an old iris that I'd been ignoring for at least ten years, and actually, I didn't have to dig it up, it was so compacted and it was growing literally on top of the ground. The clump was about 12" in diameter, and by the time I got done dividing it, I had 70 individuals!! I put them out in the garden just to get them in the ground, but they aren't where I want them now. I'd really like to move those, but I'm not sure I should at this late date. They've been in the ground for a couple of weeks now, at least.
I want to plant the crocus under one of our huge trees, in the grass. We'll see how that goes.
I have a "test bed" for the iris rhizomes people gave me that I don't know what color they are, and for other things I'm not sure where I want to put permanently. Sounds like you need a test bed too, kbaumle. Maybe one of the folks in the iris forum can tell you if moving them again already is a good or bad idea. I would hesitate to do so myself, but I'm no iris expert.
Test bed.........I call mine the 'Orphan Garden.' LOL. I think I'll just leave them there for now. I can move them next year.
kbaumle--that's quite an impressive bulbaceous list!
I want to know what kind of knipophia you ordered and what you're going to do with them? They are introducing so many new cultivars in Europe and the UK. I'm fascinated by them but didn't order any and now I regret it. I think I could have put them with the Eremurus, though. same culture requirements...(a psychologist would have a field day with that garden plan though. LOL now that I think about it.)
boojum--I have A. thunbergii--planted last year--I see green leaves but no bloom now, but I think they are not in a good spot. Also you went big into some new kinds of hippeastrum...(I assume the 'Emerald' is a new green hybrid, will have to look it up.) I have my 40 from last year 'sleeping' in garage now. I hope and pray that they come back.
McGlory--your spring garden will be a riot of color with that many red and yellow tulips coming up...do you plant anything along with them? Do they bloom in succession?
carrie--we should start an heirloom bulb thread. There are so many beautiful daffs listed by OHG. I love them. Scheepers has a list of heirloom bulbs on their site, too, but, of course, it's not as extensive as OHG's. (And they don't thank you every time you put something in the cart!) LOL
A collage of my amaryllis pots from last year. I look at this to remember how overwhelmed I got with my 2004 bulb orders!
Wow, 40? Impressive winter flowers! Besides the new hipps, I have my grandmother's striatum (a mini) and 2 baby pots I grew from seed (I gave about 5 pots away, too)! First for me. I got a cybister Merengue last year by mistake!!! It was in a bin that said it was papilio. Then I bought 2 papilios (haven't bloomed yet). And I e-mailed Veronica Read for a while to identify the cybister. It was a fancy hybrid by Meyer. I also have the good old huge red I got years ago, that blooms every summer without putting it in the cold. I do like the minis and species best.
Anyone else grow allium thunbergii?
Here's the Merengue.
Boojum--I love 'Merengue'--would love to have a whole basket full planted with maidenhair ferns for my entry hall table this winter. So interesting that you had a correspondence with Veronica Read--she has a lot of good info on her website about her National Collection, doesn't she....
"Easy to Grow Bulbs" sent me some rare amaryllis as a gift last year--two of them were Meyer hybrids. Very pretty.
kbaumle--I have a 'plant orphanage/hospital' where I put all my extra purchases, struggling perennials, etc., but I planted them all out in the garden last week in preparation to convert my "hospital" into a cutting garden. Will put my double daffs and lily bulbs in there. I was sick of looking at all my orphans and had to find them a home.
I ordered nothing! :( There were a few times I put stuff in a cart at John Scheepers and Old House Garden, but then decided against it. We have our house up for sale and I just don't know where I will be this spring so I could not bring myself to spend the big $$.
I did go ahead and buy one package of early Narcissus at HD last week. I will put those in the large pots that flank my front door entry. I also bought a few Dutch Iris bulbs at a nursery this week and they will probably go in the same pot or another large pot I have around. The only other thing I am going to buy are a few bags of tulips from HD. I will wait until the end of this month though so they can go straight in the fridge for 6 to 8 weeks before planting them in a pot around Christmas time.
We stopped at a greenhouse while out shopping yesterday and went in so the dogs could have a little social time (well thats my excuse and Im sticking to it!) and I added to the bulbs already waiting by buying a dozen hyacinths ready for forcing!
To the species tulips collectors: Ive been buying these every year - just get the ones I havent bought yet. Then this year found a bunch more at a local nursery but managed to keep my hands in my pockets. My plant tags tell me I now have 30 different colors! I'll have to count next spring - not sure some might have gone to the squirrels My dogs do a good job of keeping them out of the back yard but the front is available to them!
I ordered the kniphofia from Spring Hill, as they had a one-cent sale on them. They are at the back of an area that used to be all white daisies. I transplanted the back of that area to a different garden, and I planted some mystery bulb (that I dug up while planting something else - I have no idea what that is - it will be a surprise next spring! LOL), then the kniphofia at the back of that. A low window to our family room is right above this bed and I always plant something that we can see bloom from the family room. The best thing I ever put in that bed was all zinnias and cosmos. It looked so neat from the inside (outside, too.)
This message was edited Oct 7, 2005 11:13 AM
I was so good/bad..... Every bulb magazine I got... I'd work for hours trying to get the most for the least... You know those pesky coupons....
Well finally, got it... and was going to write the check... When daughter's car stopped. I saw $$ flying out the window... I just pitched the magazine... O well, the fun is in the anticipation, I guess.
Hi. I love grape muscari, and want to plant masses of them this year, but would like something light pink and same size to go with them, or at least the next best thing. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can plant along with the grape muscari? Thank you for any help! I have looked and looked and looked!
Also, does anyone know of a cheaper source of bulbs than Dutch Gardens? I have not found one. I think their prices are the best I've seen.
Thank you.
Elliot
Muscaris are April/May according to Scheeper's catalog. So I was planning on putting them with narcissi Passionale (pink cup, white perianth) for April or narcissi Bell Song (pink cup, buff yellow turning white perianth) for May. I also thought I'd mix them with April/May dog tooth lilies. Not sure if you were planning on the same height as the muscari or not.
Elliot, you may want to check out eflowergarden.com; they don't have a huge selection, but they do have great prices. Pink shades of Anemone blanda may work well with your muscari or perhaps some species tulips(many of them are small). Primula are a pretty companion to grape hyacinths as well. I think VanEngelen/John Scheepers and Brent&Becky's have better prices than Dutch Gardens this fall. Neal.
perseverve: I too love Muscari and have many different types. Did you know there is a yellow one available now? Suggestions for other things to put with them, also small: chinodoxa, hyacinthoides, pouschkinia, scilla -some come in pink some not. All naturalize although not quite so quickly as Muscari and all about the same size
I have a lot of daffodils and like to plant Muscari in front of them - the yellow/blue combination is great in the spring. And you can get daffodils with pink shades now too of course.
I have tried planting anemone blanda, but had very poor success. Perhaps 1 in 10 of them came up and bloomed. Have tried several times in several different places---very poor success. Are there any secrets about how to get them to come up, to bloom, and to naturalize? Have had horrible luck, too, with regular anemones and with cyclamen. Would very much like to grow anemone blanda with grape muscari, but anemone blanda come up so very poorly for me!
It appears there are pink dog tooth lilies for sale somewhere, though where I don't know. But again, for me, dog tooth lilies were finicky. I think 1 in 6 of them came up for me the one time I planted them. I am not a rookie gardener; been doing it for years. Anyone have any tips for me as to where to find pink dog tooth lilies and how best to plant them for good success? Thank you.
Persevere, how do you treat A. blanda before planting? I find that a soak overnight in warm water helps to rehydrate the corms and speeds root growth. I have also found that squirrels like to dig them up, take a bite, and toss them down again. I lost a lot of A. blanda to squirrels. I am planting out fifty of them with 20 lady tulips and will put hardware cloth over the planting area to keep the tree rats out.
Beth
Persevere - I am absolutely in love with Anemone blanda & can't imagine not being able to grow
them! I tuck them in under my dogwoods and in all my front beds. They even self seed. Is it
possible that the source for your "bulbs" is the problem? I also use Van Engelen's (great prices).
Here's what I ordered:
ANEMONE BLANDA MIXTURE 200
CROCUS VERNUS TWILIGHT 200
OXALIS ADENOPHYLLA 40
TULIP CISTULA 100
TULIP FLAIR 100
TULIP JEWEL OF SPRING 100
HEAVENLY PURPLE TULIPS SPECIAL 200
LILY ASIATIC LOW GROWING MIX 25
Am planning to plant up a new garden I put in at the
top of a rock wall along our driveway. Figure the
deer won't bother them there. (Its at the bottem of
a very steep hill and they don't like coming to
the front yard 'cause of the road. ). I'll put many
of these in the garden and hopefully have a succession
of blooms before the daylilies come into bloom.
Oh - its the prettiest it will ever be right now in my mind
(Aren't all of our gardens at their finest as we dream of
them?)
Tam
Hello, Turtle! Hello, Tam!
I have been ordering from Dutch Gardens, mainly, because I found their prices and the size of their bulbs to be the best. But I've not heard of Van Engelen and some other companies you're mentioning. Turtle, I had never tried soaking the corms in warm water over-night. The soil and exposure I tried growing anemone blanda in last year were excellent: an aged mixture of black topsoil, manure and mushroom compost, and plenty of sun with some occasional shade. They just didn't come up much at all. I will try ordering some more this year and try them again... Thanks for the tips, both of you!
Hi, persevere--check out this site on anemone blanda--it talks about well draining fertile soil to avoid root rot, and then goes on to say to plant out in Spring in zone 3 and 4, plant in fall in warmer zones...maybe plant some in spring and see what works best?....I've never had luck either, but squirrels get mine.
http://pss.uvm.edu/pss123/peranemo.html
Tammy, that's quite an exotic list of bulbs and a lot of them! The new bulb garden sounds perfect. Please post some before and after pics for us next spring!
I read somewhere the bulb people are really working on developing muscari...I saw the yellow ones in the Scheepers catalog, too. and have tried the plumosum and a few others with the daffs for accents. I'm hoping some come back from last year....
Perrsevere, And don't forget, HD and Lowes always have lots of muscari on sale at the end of the season. Also the Brent and Becky's online sale normally starts Thanksgiving weekend with some good bargains. Last year I got some nice ones on sale.
Speaking of sales, i can't believe you got Kniphofia for 1 cent. KBaumle! What a deal!
Another bulbous plant the Euro hybridizers are working on...people love them in Europe and here they are pretty much ignored...I have never grown Kniphofia but would like to try someday...
Quite a site, Tabasco! Good grief, what a LOT of cultivars of anemone blanda they mention! Never seen more than a couple of them in any catalogue! Yes, department stores have good sales at end of season, but not sure they are better than bulk prices from catalogues, even then... Have you found the deals to be real steals end of season at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc? I don't like waiting till it's really cold to plant bulbs. My extremities are very sensitive to cold. Like to get bulbs planted earlier and have it done.
I'm in a zone 5, so not sure when I ought to plant a. blanda. Squirrels, thankfully, are not a problem. They're not even a problem when I feed the birds! What a blessing!
Anyone know anything about hardy cyclamen? Have had terrible luck with those! Planted them once, and NONE came up.
By the way, the "green thumb" thing is a complete myth. All it takes to grow nearly ANYTHING is:
1) following proper instructions to be sure plant gets conditions it needs.
2) patience to do it right!
persevere, I saw pink trout lilies (dog tooth violets) in Brent and Becky's catalog. I planted hardy cyclamen several years ago in fall. Over a year later while raking leaves I found all these lovely little blooms underneath, but they never showed up again. I'm going to try some from seed as Tammy suggested. I want lots, but they're pricy to mass. Good luck, Neal.
I've tried cyclamen in the wrong place twice! Really feel stupid 'cause they are expensive
and so I grew mine from seed. Took a few years to get them big enough to bloom. So - I had
it in my mind they needed dry shade. I saw a garden show with an area planted out with cyclamen
that had naturalized into a beautiful spread. Under trees. Dry shade - right? WRONG. I have
to water them very often in the greenhouse - they need moist shade.
Dog tooth lilies = trout lilies = erthronium (sp?) are a native lily. I've been putting some in every
year for a few years and finally got some bloom this spring. really darling. Van Engelen has those
too. I think they like part shade.
Lets all post pic's in the spring!
Tam
tabasco, when I said 1-cent sale, that means, buy one, get another for 1 cent. They were 3 for $13.99, 6 for $14.00. So I got 12 for $28. And they'd better make it. But Spring Hill has a lifetime guarantee, so if they don't...
I hope someday they look just like this:
I think dry shade was the problem when I tried cyclamen before, but that's not the case here. Ooohh! I can just see them naturalized in the woodland areas. Tammy, are yours fall or spring blooming? As far as seed goes, I'd like a mix of both.
kbaumle, knifofias are such a great form, I love them and would like more varieties, like the soft, greenish ivory and primrose yellow cultivars. Some varieties are marginally hardy (I've had the occasional hard winter kill mine, but it's worth replacing them), but yours look well protected next to the house and should be fine. The color of mine is not as intense as the pic, but very pretty anyway.
Neal.
I put them there, because it's protected from the wind, and it faces south. It's VERY warm and anything I've ever grown there does great. Hopefully, the kniphofia will be no exception!
I have read that with regard to anemones and cyclamen, there are the "good" corms, used by the florist trade, and the "bad" corms, which make their way to the retail public. I read that in a book on anemones meant for the professional grower. There was something about how the great big corms are none too good for making decent plants. Where does one get seed for cyclamen? And where does one get decent corms for anemones, cyclamen, renunculus, which are another form of anemone, I gather, and for anemone blanda? I have always had a taste for the more difficult plants? Well, I do love zinnias! LOL! But I can't stand run-of-the-mill marigolds and begonias! :+))
I am just SO confused. It depends on which site you look at as to what zone some things are in. Take Anemone coronaria, for example. I'm in 5b and I've found it listed as hardy to as cold as zone 3, yet other sites say only zone 6. What's a gardener to do??
And plant in the fall or plant in the spring? I've seen both for that, too.
This message was edited Oct 10, 2005 1:44 AM
The sources do vary, and sometimes little microclimates in our gardens make a big difference to, so a lot of it is trial and error. I've had Anemone coronaria return for a couple of years, then dissappear. The cyclamen used by florists are the big, tender types used as potted blooming plants, and typically not the little hardy ones. Thompson and Morgan are offering hardy cyclamen seed in their new catalog, but they're a bit pricey. Parks and other vendors usually offer them to. Most of the major bulb suppliers offer anemone and ranunculus, but the ranunculus would'nt be hardy in your zone. I've tried ranunculus several times, and the last time I started them in a cold frame and got them started and planted early. I did see a few blooms that time, but it got too hot for them and they just melted.
I think the confusing thing is when the sources are saying the plant can be grown in these zones, but they may not be winter hardy. For mild winter areas Anemone coronaria is best planted in fall, while for cold winter areas, spring is best (they're usually offered in spring and fall bulb catalogs). Good luck all! Neal.
Hi, Neal.
In my area, I would only grow ranunculus in a greenhouse.
By the way, anyone who is not aware of Google.com's Image Library, ought to be. All you do is go to www.google.com and then click where it says "images." You then put in whatever you would like to see photos of, and click "Enter." I put in "anemone coronaria" and came up with many wonderful photos. I have been thinking of planting a sugarberry/hackberry tree to attract birds, but didn't have any good idea of what the tree or the berries looked like, so put in "sugarberry" and immediately was able to view quite a few photos, which, by the way, caused me to decide to put any sugarberry tree I plant toward the back of my property, as, in my opinion, sugarberry is not attractive enough to be a specimen tree.
Best to all!