http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/53340/index.html - I am not sure how to handle these plants as they are for a warmer zone. I have nine of them growing in my shade garden. I got them in a plant trade and only discovered that they are not hardy here. They spring from a little bulb and look a bit like a small hosta.
Do I dig them up now? Wait for the leaves to turn brown as it gets colder? Pull before the first frost? Keep in perlite like dahlias?
Appreciate any info!
Sterling
pix of bulbs
Sterling, I grow these. I dig them up and pot them in really well draining soil. I leave the leaves on top. I bring them inside, into a cool area if you have. I put my close to a window. I taper off the water, let the leaves die back. I do not hold back water completely, just force dormancy. Then in February I begin watering again, the leaves pop up fairly quickly.
GGG
good info! Thanks - and then I guess you put them back into the ground when the soil has warmed up?
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Incidentally - you have Atlanta 8b under your name... I though Atlanta was 7b? OK - I just rechecked the USDA zone map http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-se1.html - this says 7b is 5-10 degrees which I - personally - have not seen in a very long time. Sometime back in the 80s in fact. and zone 8b is 20 to 15 degrees which is more like our weather in recent years. The numbers are supposed to be 'annual minimum temperature'. But it also says Atlanta is 7b and Gainesville and Austin are 8b...
I get confused about this... I do remember the winter we hit -8 (that is MINUS eight!) in 1985... You could hardly breathe outside.
Sterhill, I think they probably just consider Atlanta a microclimate in a larger pool of zone 7b? The concrete, pollution, city lights, tree cover etc. create kind of a "dome" in my yard. As does rock and glass that I use to insulate plant roots in the winter. Last year we had two light frosts in my yard, and nothing more. That was an unusual year, but still, it's ever been really cold down here except in an in an ice storm and then only for a few hours.
GGG
GGG - I know that's true - I have some 'tender' plants that do well in my protected back yard that would freeze to death in my windy front yard. Still, we've not had really terrible weather (knock on wood) in a while...
