Worth the extra work?

I remember tuberoses from my great grandmother's garden. The flowers on a stem open from the bottom to the top. If you cut them and bring them into the house, the flowers will continue to open over a period of days. They are incredibly fragrant!

Polianthes tuberosa, native to central America, cultivated by the Aztecs and brought to Europe by the Spaniards, are now grown commercially all over the world for their perfume.

A couple of years ago one of the women at our local farmers' market who sells beautiful bouquets of cut flowers, brought a small bucket of tiny tuberose bulbs to sell "2 for a dollar." I bought 6. She told me that they probably wouldn't bloom the first year, but 2 of them did. I had seven flower stalks this past summer.

Now for the bad news--they are not hardy north of zone 8. So they need to be dug up at the end of every summer and replanted every spring. For me the fragrance is more than worth the trouble. How do you all feel about high maintenance flowers. What is a lot of trouble to grow that you grow anyway?

I have read about tube roses. They sound wonderful - fragrant and blooming for several days.

I love ranunculus. I haven't tried growing them here yet, but I ordered some to set out after last frost. I corresponded with the nursery before buying - their catalog said to treat as annuals north of zone 8 (?) but in emails I learned that they could be lifted and stored for winter just like dahlias, which I also love. I am continually amazed at how a grubby little tuber produces such a display of foliage and blooms - the entire cycle is so interesting it doesn't really feel like trouble to trim them and tuck them into sand & sawdust for the winter. I also hauled in 3 large pots of tender lavenders (Kew, and 2 others). They seem to be living, if not thriving, and if they don't revive in spring, c'est la vie, I'll stick to hardier varieties of lavender. But I'll always grow dahlias, and if the ranunculus do well I will go to any amount of trouble for them.

I have glads and dahlias planted for around 10 years that I've never lifted. They're in a bed tucked right next to the back porch which is pretty protected. The only mulch is a green mulch of golden moneywort (which is evergreen.) I've never had them fail to come up and bloom.

I haven't been able to get tuberoses to work in this zone. Plenty of greenery but no blossoms.

I used to dig mounds of cannas, now too many to store. Some also survived last winter outside. Dug a moderate amount and stored.
I love the scent of fragrant glads, acidanthera, but must have let them freeze out and haven't rebought.
I got a peruvian daffodil last year which will need to be brought in and have done so for its first winter.........

I'm having a hard time nominating my most high maintenance item; Upon reflection, I definitely avoid things like roses that would be too high maintenance. I can handle dividing and pruning, hate spraying and deadheading

This message was edited Jan 16, 2007 10:09 PM

Where did you get your bulbs andi? I've never heard that tuberose was miserly with its blooms if the summer was long enough and you should have that covered in Arlington. Don't give up--they should bloom for you next year.

dayli-
I got them from an otherwise totally reliable seller whom I'm hesitant to name because they are member's here and I know that's not the problem. Plus, I had a couple from other sources. None of them bloomed. Have you had luck? Some sources suggested that they needed to sit for a couple of seasons, and I assumed that it wouldn't work here because of the cold.

I had two stalks of blooms the first year--just folliage from the other bulbs. The second year I had five in early August and two that just made it through before cold weather set in. They spent the winter between where they are now--in a paper bag in the crawl space. I give them a handful of bonemeal when I plant them, but that's all I do.

I'm getting a bunch of tuberoses (and a whole lot of other stuff) from the blooming bulb coop that is about to close tonight. If any of you want me to add to my order for you, dmail me, but you'll have to drive to Chevy Chase to pick them up (or I can mail them, but that will add another cost). It closes for add-ons at 7pm tomorrow. The current price for tuberoses is $1.43 (plus 13% shipping to the host and then shipping to me, except I am already paying for shipping for a big order so it may not be anything more to me).

Hart, I've had dahlias for about 3 years now and have brought them in in the winter just to be safe. This year I think I will follow your example and leave them out. Do the ones you have that have been in place for 10 years still flower well? On the dahlia forum I've read that they need to be dug up and divided every 3 years or so to keep them blooming. Perhaps that varies with the cultivar.... What do you think?

My goodness yes they're doing fine there. They're dinnerplate dahlias and last summer the blooms were huge and they bloomed constantly for a couple of months until the frost killed them back.

Just keep in mind I'm talking about a very protected site. I live in an old house with a kitchen ell on the back. The long side wall of the ell faces roughly south. The dahlias and glads are in a little corner at the back of the ell and right next to a concrete porch.

Of course I also get colder temperatures than you do too. All these weeks you all have been talking about the warm winter, I've still been getting temps in the 20s and 30s most nights.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to divide them every few years. I've improved the more or less alkaline rocks in that site with a lot of good soil, but I'm sure your soil is a lot better than mine.

I'm surprised, I guess, that no one mentioned roses as a high maintenance plant that they can't do without. I'm with Sally on this. I can't commit to the spraying they need in our hot humid summers. However, if anyone ever comes up with a fragrant rose that is naturally immune to blackspot....

Quit messing around with tea roses and try some of the old, heirloom roses. Their scent is wonderful and they're not prone to black spot and other diseases. In fact, once you smell one of these old roses, you'll scoff at using the word "fragrant" to describe a modern tea rose.

Remind me when you come to the swap and I'll give you a cutting from my old moss rose.

Go to the Antique Rose Emporium's website and you'll find lots and lots of roses that are tough as nails.

Hart: Do you have any old roses in shady-ish spots that do ok?

Actually, that moss ross gets quite a bit of shade. Be glad to give you some cuttings too. There's another old rose, a climbing fairy rose (if I wasn't too lazy I'd look it up) growing in the woodsy area in front of the house that gets a lot of shade. That one we can dig pieces for you all if you're interested. They grow way up into the sassafras trees there.

Not an old rose, but one of my Austin roses is growing under a tree and gets a fair amount of shade. It's doing fine.

There was a rose garden here when we moved into our house. I struggled with them for several years before passing them on to a friend. I think she eventually gave them to someone else. Roses break your heart. I vowed never to grow them again--I would love to have a cutting.

I'd love cuttings! I've not been good at rooting rose cuttings, though, but I'm going to change my method . . . .

Once you've grown the old roses, you'll wonder why anyone would bother with the newer varieties. I have some new roses, some Austins and florabundas, but no hybrid teas.

I will say I had a hybrid tea in my old garden - Dolly Parton, so named because it had massive dark coral blooms - and never had any disease problems with it at all. But there was a Peace rose there that had been planted by the prior owner that was eaten up with black spot.

From what I've read, the hybrid teas are all bred from a rose that was extremely prone to black spot. That's why they are all prone to it.

Austin went back and bred the newer roses to old roses so they presumably don't have that weakness. I've had luck with some of his roses, not so much with others.

I did kill a lot of roses trying to grow them in the back yard before I found out about juglone from the black walnuts. The rootstock of one survived after the rose died and I figured if it can live here, I'm not digging it up. It gets a heavy bloom of single red flowers once every year.

Happy, I'll make sure you all have the directions on how to root rose cuttings. It's a pretty rose, dark pink, with an absolutely heavenly old rose scent. It's a rambler, not as tall as a climber, so you can if you want grow it along a fence or up a wall or on a pillar.

Trying to play catch up on the threads...whew!! I started doubles and single tuberoses last spring inside to give them a head start. They absolutely filled a huge pot I had with greens like with Andi...but out of all of that I only got 3 stalks - scent is extremely strong but nice. None of my singles sent up stalks. This was my first time with them...AND my first time digging up and storing...hope I did it "right." I'm looking for one of those bulb cages this spring...I'd like to put them IN the ground instead of the pot.

Chantell-
Around what time did you start them indoors last year? I was using singles, perhaps that is the difference.

Andi,
If I had to guess I would say within the first 2 weeks of March...even then they no blooms came up until SEPT!!! They're suppose to be Aug bloomers....very odd!! I don't think it matter whether you use singles or doubles...matter more the maturity of the bulb...at least that's what I've been told. Apparently they're heavy feeders as well. Hope this helps!!