Bulbs and irises

7/30/2019 Bulbs and irises

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This page: Crocus sativus

is easily recognized by itsbluish-purple owers andcrimson stigmas, whichare the source o culinary sa ron. It is surprisingly easy

to grow.

Opposite: (A) Camassialeichtliniisubsp. suksdorfi isan underused native plant

that contributes 3- oot bluespikes to the garden when it

blooms in late April.

(B) I love the elegant, bellshaped owers o Fritillariapersica, but it can be achallenge to grow. Well-drained soil is a must or its success. To help it getstarted, I put gravel at thebottom o the planting hole

to aid in drainage and I plant the bulbs at a 45-degree

angle so they shed water.

(C) Fritillaria meleagriswillnaturalize in damp sites,but it also does well or me in average soil. It alsocomes in a combinationwith mainly reddish purple

to black owers with yellowmarkings.

(D) Galtonia candicans, with

spikes o white owers 3eet tall in August, is a plant

that should be more widely used. It does not needstaking, has been hardy or me or the past three years,and blooms at a down timein my garden.

(E) I use Corydalis solida ‘George Baker’ in both thegravel and ruin gardens as

well as in troughs, becauseit likes good drainage. Even

though short in stature, this plant has a saturatedcolor that grabs the eye andcarries quite a distance.

USING BULBS INTHE LAYERED GARDEN

One o the easiest ways to add layers o inter-est to any garden is with hardy bulbs. They havebeauti ul (and sometimes unusual) fowers, comein a rainbow o colors, and bloom in all our sea-sons o the year. They range in size rom 6-inchsnowdrops to lilies that can tower 6 eet or

more. Early blooming bulbs can easily be plantedamong later blooming herbaceous perennials.Summer bulbs can be an integral part o a Julyborder. And all bulbs provide welcome color atthis challenging time o year.

Many bulbs originated in Asia and theMediterranean region, making them well suited

or my dry garden. Some can even be used indeciduous shade, since they have had their sea-son by the time the tree canopy lea s out. I growdozens o genera o bulbs, and i I can be alloweda bit o anthropomorphizing, I would say thatthey are pretty smart critters. They grow, bloom,store up all the energy they need to replenishthemselves, and pop out a ew progeny—andthen, when the weather gets warmer or drier

(F) Leucojum aestivumis

a snowdrop relative, withelegant bell-shaped owers that appear in late spring. Itis commonly ound in dampareas but is also happy onour dry hillside, where it isbeginning to naturalize.

(G) Tulipa sylvestrisis asentimental avorite, sinceit was brought over by Pennsylvania German

settlers and can be oundnaturalized around oldhomesteads in the state. Itgrows in part shade, hence

the species name, roughly translated “o the woods.”

(H) Cardiocrinum giganteum is an outsized example o abulb or shade, blooming inlate May into June on ower spikes that have reached

up to 5 eet in my garden.Once it blooms, the originalbulb dies, but it is easy tokeep going rom the sidebulbs or rom seed.

(I) Fall-blooming Cyclamenhederi oliumis per ectly hardy here in theDelaware Valley. It is a nicecounterpoint to the spring-blooming Cyclamen coum.



A B C

F

IHG

DE



234 THE LAYERED GARDEN

Left: Although exampleso the genus Nerine arenot hardy, we grow themin pots where they createa spectacular all show,and the containers can bemoved wherever we need

the color. The pots areallowed to die back andare stored dry in the barnduring the winter.

Center: I like memberso the genus Colchicum because they are bothbeauti ul and deer-proo ; Iplant more ever y year. Thisdouble- owered variety iscalled ‘Waterlily’.

Right: In all bulbs, yellowowers are uncommon. I

count on this hardy bulb,Sternbergia species, or thatcolor note in all. I wonder why people do not plantmore o it; perhaps they overdose on yellow da odilsand crocuses in the spring.

than they like, they go dormant until the ollow-ing year. I they could only teach other plantsto do the same, my garden might not look so

orlorn in times o summer drought.Since I use so many bulbs in my garden and

add more all the time, I am lucky that many o them are relatively inexpensive. You can get anespecially big bang or your buck with minorbulbs like scilla, and spring-blooming crocus,which i bought in bulk can cost rom a nickelto a quarter each, depending on the variety. Thecheaper cost allows me to make large gestureswith these smaller bulbs, which I then use to

justi y my purchase o a coveted $50 galanthus.Special galanthus and other rarities get plantedalong the edge o paths and walls, where they

can be more readily seen and appreciated.

I like to plant my bulbs in naturalistic dri ts.Some people toss their bulbs and plant themwhere they land, but I need more control thanthat. My method is to plant three or ve bulbsin a clump, then plant two outside the clump, tomake it seem as the bulbs are spreading natu-rally. I then repeat this arrangement across thearea I am trying to ll. With the exception o galanthus, many bulbs do not have to be plantedas soon as we get them. O ten in the all, i weare busy trying to beat the rost, cutting plantsback and preparing the garden or winter, we willplant bulbs between or a ter these more press-ing chores.

(Using Bulbs in the Layered Garden, continued )






Irises According to myth, Iris is the Goddess of the Rainbow, a messengerof the Olympian gods, and wherever she treads on the earth, colorful

owers—members of the Iridaceae—spring up in her footprints. If only

planting a garden were as easy as calling on the gods to do all the work.The truth is (and I hope Zeus does not strike me dead for debunking hismyth), I have had to plant all my irises myself. I have more than a hun-dred species and varieties of this plant, which bloom beginning in March withIris danfordiaeand continue into July with Louisiana irises. Most iriseslike full sun; two exceptions in my collection are the shade-tolerant spe-cies,I. cristataand I. tectorum.

If I had to choose a favorite, it might be the antique German beardedirises. I like the form of these heirloom irises more than that of many

modern hybrids, which are so stiff and overbred as to appear unreal. Andthe antique irises seem better suited to my garden. They are more grace-ful, with papery, parchment-like sheaths around the buds that give theman air of intrigue as they slowly reveal their blooms, like a stripper thatslowly drops the seventh veil. On a far more prosaic and practical note,heirloom plants of all types tend to be sturdier than the hybrids (onereason they have survived all these years), which is important since I usealmost no pesticides in my garden. Antique irises tend to be more resis-tant to iris borers (caterpillars that eat their way down through the leavesinto the rhizomes, causing them to rot).

Even though they bloom at one of my busiest gardening seasons, I stillnd time to occasionally hunt for old irises. I visit nurseries that special-

ize in them, and look for them around abandoned home sites and in oldcemeteries. More than once I have knocked on the front door of stranger,to see what the owner might know about an unusual iris that caught my eye. Sometimes I even shamelessly beg a division, and since gardenersare mostly generous, most of the time I get one and make a friend in theprocess. I enjoy saving these varieties from oblivion, and as they multiply in my garden, I pass them along to others. Sharing favorite plants can

be part of a bond of friendship between gardeners, but it is also a formof insurance. If they die out in our own beds, we know where we can getmore.

Having said all this in praise of the antiques, one would think I wouldshun all modern hybrids, but of course I am not that consistent. I buy new irises for my garden every year, and if I see a modern variety with anexceptional color I want to use, I will get it. For a similar reason, I no lon-ger avoid the remontant (repeat-blooming) irises. I used to think they looked out of place in the fall garden, but I have loosened up in recent years and learned to enjoy their encore performances, and to view themas another crayon to use in my late-season combinations.

I began growing Iris ensataafter a trip to Japan, during which I had a religious experience of the horticultural kind at an ancient Buddhist tem-ple. The monks there had been cultivating iris for more than 500 years,

The native Iris cristatawasone o the frst wild owers Ilearned to identi y, while onhikes as a child in the GreatSmoky Mountains. I nowconsider it an indispensableplayer in my part-shadeareas.







Opposite, clockwise: Havingspent a good part o my growing up in the Volunteer State, I needed to have Iris ‘Tennessee Gentleman’ inmy garden. I also appreciate

the bronzy-orange color.Iris bucharicais an early blooming species that I growin the sunnier parts o thehillside, in combination withred hellebores. Iris‘Wabash’is one o my avorites.Introduced in 1937, it hasbeen a best seller ever since. With Iris‘Batik’, no

two owers are quite thesame. Its unusual color markings raise the eyebrowso purists, but each year Idivide it and plant morebecause its colors work wellin the borders around thevegetable garden.

This page, top, left: The color o Iris‘Brown Lasso’, a recentintroduction, proved tooirresistible or me to passup. It looks smashing whenunderplanted with nepeta.

Top, right: Iris‘Indian Chie ’has a classic antique orm.Its compelling bronzy red

alls, with yellow veins andbeard, look stunning incombination with yellow

owers and oliage.

Bottom: Iris ensata extendsiris time into late June. Itgrows well in both averageand moisture-retentive soils.




and the varieties and colors astounded me. A few years ago I began grow-ing Louisiana irises, which are hybrids of a number of moisture-loving species native to the southern United States, after my neighbors pavedtheir driveway and redirected runoff from their property. This causedproblems at rst—I had to relocate existing irises and peonies, which would have otherwise quickly rotted—but now I have a dampish spot where the Louisiana irises thrive.

Every time I visit my family near Nashville, I try to take a side trip toIris City Gardens, about forty miles south in the town of Primm Springs,Tennessee. With seventy- ve beds spread out over 10 acres, a visit therealways gives me iris overload, especially if I get to visit around Mother’sDay, when the owers are at their peak. I walk through the beds in a daze,making notes about plants that catch my eye, trying not to fall in love with them all. Catalogs and websites are useful tools, but for me nothing is better than seeing plants in person, taking note of their growth habitsand making comparisons, smelling them, touching them, and reveling intheir beauty. Walking through this nursery and other similar iris gardensis like taking a stroll across a rainbow, and I always have the feeling thatthe goddess is treading a few steps in front of me, leading her acolyte on.

IRIS CULTUREI love all irises or the sharply vertical accento their oliage, although it needs attention tostay looking good. As the summer wears on, I

make sure all bloom stalks are cut o , and thenremove any shriveled or de ormed leaves. Care-

ully pruning the leaves o surrounding plantsis important to give irises the light and air theyneed. I also try to keep any creeping or sel -sowing plants rom growing among the rhizomes.This vigilance can be time-consuming i you haveeven hal as many irises as I do, but it will pay o in healthier, stronger, better blooming plants.

Tall bearded irises like ull, baking sun: aminimum o seven hours makes them happy. Takeextra care to avoid overplanting them. Beardedirises tolerate many soil types, with the excep-tion o wet soils, which they hate and will quickly

rot in. I you plant them in average soil and ullsun, they will reward you or many years. Theyare among the easiest perennials to grow.

Blooms in a clump o iris may diminish overtime unless the rhizomes or tubers are dividedevery ew years. I do this in early to midsum-mer, soon a ter the last blooms ade. I dig outthe clump, inspect the plants or borers, and cutaway any rotten parts. I divide the plants intosmaller pieces, and let the wounds callus over

or a day or so. For German irises, I plant therhizome on top o the ground in a sunny loca-tion, burying the attached roots to anchor it. I there is a an o oliage attached, I cut that back to about 3 inches to keep the rhizome rom dry-ing out until it develops its new root system.

Bulbs and irises

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