Friday, October 31, 2008

Last Chance to Plant

Some of the plants I ordered arrived this week and are now planted in the ground. Mostly the ones that were best shipped as bare roots or bulbs. They were 3 varieties of Trillium (probably the only three in production), Turks Cap, and Bloodroot.

Thanks to deforestation most of the remaining forest land in America isn't in good shape. Fragmented forests only have so many species in them and the weaker species are only a short disaster away from going locally extinct. Because of this most people have probably never seen a Trillium in person. I am among those people. Trillium grandiflorum is probably the most widely sold Trillium in the US and I look forward to it's wonderful white flower next year. The other two are T. luteum which is yellow, and T. erectum which is red.

Blood Root is a short little early blooming wildflower. It's always fun to find a native wildflower that isn't widely considered to be a weed. The only downfall I've read about this one is it's flower is short lived. This is a shame because pictures I see online look nice.

The last one was Turks Cap Lily. Garden stores always have so many lilies for sale. I believe most of them are native to Asia. Our US natives tend to have the flowers pointed down. The peddels are also spotted and blend from orange to pink.

After planting all of these I added some decomposing leaves from the compost bin and watered the ground. This isn't nessessary for their survival but it's highly recommended. Squirrles are notorious bulb eaters and will happily rip up your prize winning garden for a meal. However, they don't dig in wet soil. The water will also hide your work.

I've had squirles digging up my bulbs before. I usually don't care though because most of the time they just replant it elsewhere in the yard.

I haven't decided yet if I'll be growing bulbs inside yet. Some of them are very fragrant and it's always good to freshen up a room now and then. They usually don't require much care at all either. What I don't like though is how expensive they are. Some of them are $20 or more for one plant. It's kind of worth it if you really love the scent and keep triggering it to bloom. The only reason most of them bloom over the winter is becasue they've already been wintered. It's not uncommon to find ones that haven't sold in late winter that are bursting out of their packaging.