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The Garden Club |
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Autumn Bulbs to Enjoy in a Matter of Weeks! The genus colchicum is comprised of several dozen species of fall and spring blooming bulbs that are related to the lily, but with flowers closely resembling crocus only much larger. Originally from northern Europe, Near East and North Africa, colchicums bloom have naturalized through large portions of the British Isles, across northern and central Europe into Russia and the Iberian Peninsula. Colchicums are totally resistant to rodent damage and browsing deer. All Colchicums are members of a diverse group of bulbs sometimes referred to as “naked ladies”. This includes true late summer and fall blooming crocus, magic lilies (Lycoris), as well as the fall blooming colchicums.
Graceful Chalice-Shaped Blooms
When you receive your autumn colchicum, plant the bulbs immediately.
‘The Giant’ looks best planted amongst a low-growing ground cover or a
mass of low-growing perennials. I have been particularly pleased
planting the naked lavender-flowered colchicum amongst concurrently
flowering
electric blue plumbago (Ceratostigma
plumbaginoides). Because the plumbago sprouts late I like to include
some sun-loving, smaller-growing, spring-flowering bulbs, such as
species tulips, dwarf daffodils, crocus or chinodoxia (Glory of the
Snow). Besides plumbago, other good companions are
Vinca minor,
creeping phlox (both P. subulata and stolonifera)
low-growing
sedums, sempervivums (hens and chickens or cats and
kittens),
Astilbe chinensis pumila and
Euonymus longwood.
Prefers full sun to light shade. Plant 3-4 inches deep, 10 to 12 inches apart. Choose a spot with well drained soil or dampish soil. Performs poorly in wet soil. Water regularly until established. Requires a year or two to become established, before peak performance is achieved. Fertilize with Bulb-Tone in early spring and mid-summer. Hardy in zones 4-9. Immune to deer and rodent damage. Our Garden Worthy Certification means that your satisfaction is guaranteed. |
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Garden Club Frequently Asked
Questions Question: I have an infestation of mile-a-minute, which I can not control. Is there an herbicide or something that will remove the weed other than pulling it out? I researched the weed, and the advice I got was to use a nonselective herbicide. But it may kill the desirable plants (bushes, mature trees, etc). Answer: There is no selective herbicide for mile-a-minute (tear thumb) vine. The good news is that the frost will kill it all. Next year, apply Weed Screen granules when the forsythia blooms and mulch well. This will give at least partial control. Then you can pull it or carefully apply a nonselective weed killer in the late spring. In late spring and early summer, mile-a-minute is much easier to control than later in the season.Question: I have some mums in containers that I would like to winter over. I thought I might just sink the entire container with the mums in them into the ground at the season end. Is this a good idea? How would I do it? Will the container crack? Do you have a better suggestion for keeping them? I live in zone 6-7, Nanuet, NY.Answer: Mums survive the best over the winter if they are un-potted and planted directly in the ground. I don’t recommend sinking decorative containers into the soil. Most do not survive the winter very well, especially those made of ceramic or clay. Many other materials discolor quite badly. Most modern mums sold as blooming plants in the fall are not winter hardy and do not survive outside no matter what you do. Unfortunately, there is no definitive list of which of these varieties survive the winter the best. Two magazines, “Horticulture” and “Southern Living” have run articles on old-time, true perennial chrysanthemums. I particularly recommend the old Korean mum, Single Apricot, mentioned in both articles.Question: I have a shady yard with lots of deer. I started off by planting various ivies as ground covers, but the deer decimated them. One winter they tore them out by the roots. I really had a nice collection of ivies. Some had variegated leaves, some had tiny leaves, some had veins, some had ruffles. Now I have nothing. I planted as an experiment some pachysandra and the deer seem to be leaving that alone. Are there other forms of pachysandra, like there were so many forms of ivy? I would like to have something more interesting than just plain pachysandra ground cover. Answer: My experience has been that deer love ivy and they pretty much leave pachysandra alone. There aren’t as many forms of pachysandra as there are of ivy. But there are at least three that are distinctive. There is the variegated, sometimes called 'Silveredge', which really has creamy leaf edges. Variegated pachysandra is slow growing. There is the relatively new 'Green Sheen' that has darker green leaves that are so shiny they look as if they have been sprayed with lacquer. Finally there is the 'Cut Leaf', which has pronounced serrated edges to the leaves. It grows even faster than common pachysandra. Incidentally, I have never known deer to eat Vinca minor, also known as myrtle or periwinkle. Periwinkle varies in both its leaves and the color of the flowers, ranging from pure white thru blue to deepest maroon. The leaf variation is primarily in the pattern of variegation of silver, cream or gold. Question: I live in Monkton, Maryland and I am going to be away until the end of September. I have heard you say that Black Beauty Grass Seed is best planted by the middle of September, but it can often be planted until the middle of October. As I am going to be planting late, is there anything special I should do to get the Black Beauty started?Answer: I suggest you spray the new seed with Super Bio Soil Microbes. This spring, we did side-by-side trials of Black Beauty with and without Super Bio. The grass seed treated with Super Bio definitely established much quicker and better. Question: My lawn has huge dead patches and I can roll-up the dead grass like carpet. It has absolutely no roots and when I dig down I see lots of grubs. I used Milky Spore several years ago and I thought that was to be the end of my grub problem. Answer: Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. This is the worst autumn for lawn grubs that I can remember. Milky Spore eradicates only Japanese beetle grubs, plus one or two other obscure beetle grubs that are usually not problematic. It is true that in many regions there were more Japanese beetle grubs this year than there have been over the previous several years. I attribute that to a relatively mild winter and two moist springs and summers. If this weather pattern continues, I expect next year to be “beetle mania”. Lots of the beetles that I am seeing in the lawns this fall are not Japanese beetle grubs, so of course your Milky Spore did nothing to protect you from these grubs. At this point, I suggest tearing out the dead grass, filling in with topsoil if necessary, over-seeding, fertilizing and treating with Dylox to kill the Japanese beetle grubs. To be effective, Dylox must be watered in. It is too late to apply Merit or Mach II. Question: We have been reading your questions/answers regarding lawn reseeding. It sounds like that Black Beauty Grass Seed does wonders! We live in the Cleveland Ohio area and are wondering if that grass seed would work here for us. Also, we are wondering if we can buy a similar seed at a store by us, as we hesitate to order on-line. We are also interested in the Super Bio and wonder if we could find a similar product in a store. We have 2 major problems at least with our grass. Tremendous weed growth that takes over before we can get the grass to grow strong and another area of established grass that turns brown in the summer, even when we do have a lot of rain. Not sure if the brown grass is because of sun or if it is from slugs underground. We also have moles which I know like slugs. We are frustrated to have to reseed a big section of lawn that we just seeded in spring (not the brown part, this is the new grass which is weed rampant!). Thank you for any advice you may offer. Answer: Black Beauty is fine for the Cleveland area. Some sod growers in your area have converted to Black Beauty. I am sorry but there is no way for me to know which grass seed varieties stores in your area carry. I doubt you will find Super Bio in any garden center in Ohio. The product is too new. I suggest you kill the grubs (not slugs) now with Dylox. You can determine if you have grubs by digging around or you can apply the Dylox and see how many dead grubs come to the surface. Mole tunnels are usually a good indication that you have grubs. That area can be re-seeded now with Black Beauty (which can be applied concurrently with Dylox). In the weedy area, I suggest you get the weeds under control this fall and next spring. Hold off on re-seeding until next fall. Without more specifics on what kinds of weeds you have, I can’t tell you how to control them. You could send me samples in zip lock bags. Concurrently with weed control, I suggest feeding the lawn now and at the end of November with Turf Trust. With good fertilization, once the weeds are controlled, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised as to how much good grass there is hiding amongst the weeds. Some re-seeding next fall will probably be needed, but not as much as you think. |
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