Nov 24, 2009

Bulb Time


I’m no longer so optimistic about the prospects of a wet winter, but nevertheless, the weekend-after-Thanksgiving plan is to get a heap more bulbs in the ground. I probably go a little crazy on bulbs. How can you not? Last year I put in 250, distributed around the yard. I got them in fairly late—Christmastime—owing to delays associated with the protracted Ivy War. And bulbs were last in the planting queue, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about inadvertently digging them up while planting other things. Despite their somewhat late planting, they did not disappoint—March brought pretty pink powder puffs of Allium unifolium, and by April the whole yard was dotted with the ultramarine of Triteleia laxa (Ithuriel’s Spear), with a dash of variously-colored, swoon-inducing Calochortus (superbus and venustus) sprinkled in. For reasons I don’t understand, and someone with more botanical knowledge can maybe fill me in, the Calochortus produced several blooms per bulb, whereas the Allium and Triteleia produced one inflorescence per bulb. This year though, I’m hoping for a real treat, because I know these bulbs have been busy multiplying. I occasionally accidentally dig them up while pursuing ivy insurgents, and have been thrilled to find three to six bulbs, depending on conditions, wherever I’d planted one. This in just one year!

And this season I’m adding red and yellow to the bulb mix. The guidelines I follow on designing with color are as follows: more is more, and colors can’t clash. (I especially adhere to these rules in the context of gardens, but come to think of it, I pretty much apply them in most contexts—like Fiesta dishes for example, but don’t even get me started.) The red will be coming from one Dichelostemma ida-maia, and the yellow from Triteleia ixioides. I don’t have a planting plan, per se, just gonna go out with a box of bulbs in one hand and a trowel in the other and start planting. If spring brings yellow, pink and red side by side, that’s more than fine with me. For more info on these beauties, see the descriptions I wrote for Garden Natives here.


I am a bit worried about the rain situation; the four inches my rain gauge collected in October, which I’d then celebrated as a wondrous miracle, are a distant memory now, but it did induce last year's bulbs to start growing—not to mention starting a veritable carpet of wildflower seedlings. Someone knowledgeable told me not to worry, that the bulbs could sort of “push pause” and then resume growing when rain returns, but I haven’t quite been confident enough with that advice to refrain from watering. Therefore, I’ve been setting a sprinkler throughout the yard—I hate to, but I’m just too scared of letting the bulbs croak. As it is, I’m nervous I haven’t sprinkled enough. It’s a lot of dang hassle moving the hose around the yard at intervals—it takes like a day. As for the annual seedlings, a few patches in harder-to-haul-the-hose-to areas did bite the dust, but it’s not too tragic, because I have tons of collected seed squirreled away in envelopes, so I’ll simply throw out a second wave of annuals later when the rain seems more reliable.


In the event that the El Nino predictions are off and the rains never get very reliable…well, I’ll keep watering. People make fun of me because I’m dragging a hose around after touting my drought tolerant native garden, but come on people, I didn’t mean this time of year! I was puzzling over this subject with a dude at my work, who is a harsh critic of my decision to water, and we were saying, Well what happens during dry years in nature? My conclusion was, Nature doesn’t care if she loses a bunch of bulbs or anything else once in a while, because she has all the time in the world. But the gardener is attached to the plants she lovingly placed (not to mention purchased), ergo the gardener hauls out the hose during dry spells. I hope to not need to much longer.

9 comments:

  1. Your native bulbs sound amazing. I keep meaning to get more native bulbs myself. Last year I got one Calochortus superbus and one Chlorogalum pomeridianum, but nothing else. I had seeds of Triteleia laxa, but I never got actual plants from those. And I'm not entirely sure whether the Calochortus survived the summer or not. I know the soap plant is still there because it still has leaves, but I can't see anything where the Calochortus used to be. I guess it's not too late to put in more!

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  2. Definitely not too late! I think the main thing Calochortus requires is dryness in summer, so if you had any irrigation near those bulbs, they may have gone to the great garden in the sky--a few of mine were perilously close to the drip irrigation, so not sure if they'll come back, but for the most part I try to keep Calochortus to the no-irrigation sections of the yard. It's normal to not see anything on the surface now for most bulbs. The stalks and foliage of mine dried out by July (which I think is later than in Nature--garden conditions are cushy, apparently). Though I believe native gardens need some care and maintenance to look good, I'm certainly not one of those hyper gardeners that removes every dead stalk--on the contrary, I leave almost every dead stalk to see if it will set seeds. Even so, all traces of the dried bulb stalks and foliage were completely gone by late summer. Dust to dust, I guess--surprising how fast it happens.

    A few of my bulbs are just now making their reappearance, poking little green points through the soil. I think this is way ahead of schedule, owing to our unusual mid-October rain.

    Your Chlorogalum was a good choice--I wish I had a few of those! Love seeing them in "real life" in June while hiking and running. It will put on a better display each year--enjoy! Thanks for commenting.

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  3. Hi Jess - so glad to find another CA native garden blog. I totally agree with you on the watering, especially for new gardens. The goal is to significantly reduce water usage and I'm sure you will do that. I will be watering my seeds throughout the winter, if we don't get rain, and into the spring to keep them going for my son's backyard wedding in June (things usually die back by then here in So Cal). Sounds like you are having fun with your bulbs. My guess on whether they will start and stop is that they certainly have more stored food than seeds, but the younger bulbs will be less accepting than bulkier, more established ones. The alliums are really durable. We have more trouble with Calochortus, especially here in our hotter, drier location.

    Keep us informed on your progress!

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  4. Thanks for the comment! That's a great point about the bulbs being storage units, so I'm a bit less nervous about them now. I never thought of bulbs being something you have to "establish" like other plants but it makes sense. I'll post pics when they bloom in the spring.

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  5. Oop, I forgot also to mention, Barbara, how cool I think it is that you're planning to have wildflowers around for your son's wedding--what a romantic and festive setting!

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  6. Well, that's encouraging news! I only just put the native bulbs in myself, worried that it might be too late. The consensus seems to be it will be OK.
    Aside from that, I actually stopped watering in October and everything seems to be OK. I do hand water a few new arrivals, but I do think the other plants can cope as long as it stays cool. (I do check several times a week to see whether anything is amiss).

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  7. Still plenty of time to get bulbs in, and we're scheduled for rain starting early next week--I really hope there won't be any more lengthy rain stoppages for the season, so if we all get our bulbs, seeds and new plants in, we can just kick back and watch them grow all winter! TM, I think you're definitely right that most plants would be just fine with a dry fall--I wouldn't have worried at all if it weren't for bulbs, and even with them, I'm not sure my worry was warranted.

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  8. Hi Jess - thanks for blogging about natives, I enjoyed reading your post! - I have started bulbs for the first time this year and have put them in little pots for now. Some little pointy green tips are giving me great excitement! I have too many hungry gophers so I'll be putting mine in baskets and then we'll see how they go along - Alium unifolium and Ithuriel's spear like you. Later I'll definitely try more and I look forward to seeing your spring post. I'd love to get a bit more red in the garden - I love that splash of vibrant color.

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  9. Oh OH I forgot my joke: If you bulbs croak, does that mean you'll get croakuses? hehehe

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