Salvaging Often Leads To Dirty Deeds
The great outdoors has relocated onto my kitchen floor. The advent of cold weather has me pitching, hauling and dragging into the house everything that I don’t want Mother Nature to claim. Tender bulbs, geraniums and fuchsias - they’re all coming in, along with their crisp, dried leaves and the soil they were growing in. Even a hitchhiking cricket appeared in the house.
Judging from the pile of mixed plants and debris, I’ll be sorting, potting and storing for days to come. Included in the heap are tender summer bulbs - cannas, calla lilies, glads and begonias. All of them need to be cleaned and stored for the winter. As we discussed last week, the dahlias are already stored.
Canna: These subtropical plants, which are mostly tall with big leaves and spiked flowers, grow by underground tuberous rhizomes. After they’re dug, shake off as much soil as possible and lay them out where they can dry. Once they’ve dried a bit, the remaining soil can easily be brushed off with your hand. Store them in dampened peat moss or vermiculite. They should be checked periodically to make sure they are not dehydrating. If they do look a little on the dry side, spritz them with a little water. We don’t want them wet, just barely moist.
If the root stalk is large enough, you can increase your collection next spring, by dividing the clump into many sections. Just make sure each section has at least a couple of buds.
Calla lilies: With a heavy mulch, these South African beauties are supposedly capable of surviving temperatures below 32 degrees. But how far below 32 is vague. The tubers are so easy to dig and store, why take a chance on sacrificing them to winter? Set them on a bed of dampened vermiculite and store them away in a dark, cool room until spring.
Gladiolus: These tall, sword-like flowers are produced from corms, not bulbs or tubers. The corm that was planted last spring is now a dried up, hard plate attached to the bottom of a fresh new corm, or in some cases, attached to two new corms.
Either way, simply snap off the old corm and store the new corms in mesh bags or an old panty hose in a cool room with good air circulation.
New corms also come with a little added bonus. Surrounding the corms are tiny corms called cormlets. These, too, can be saved and planted next spring. However, it usually takes cormlets a few years to develop flowers. These are for the patient gardener. For the rest of us, cormlets can simply be discarded.
(Note: There is a variety of glads known as “hardy glads,” which will over-winter, but it’s not the showy hybrid we’re used to.)
Tuberous begonias: These fellows must be rescued from the cold before they freeze. Cut the flower stalks back to about two inches from the soil. Lift the begonias from the soil and set them aside to dry. Once the soil has dried, brush it off with your hands. Set the tubers in a shallow box and cover them with dampened peat moss or vermiculite.
If your begonias had a case of powdery mildew the past summer, dust them with a fungicide such as Captan, before storing.
Now that all the summer bulbs are tucked fast asleep, we can begin planning for next year’s garden. Perhaps I should start though, by cleaning up the mess and reclaiming my kitchen. Gardening is definitely not a tidy hobby.
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review