Mid-spring is nice. There
is enough nice weather that you can fulfill the urge to
be outside and yet you aren't as job-pressured as you are
in mid-May. At our house, there is no end of raking that
needs doing and it is time to prepare flower beds for plants
that were ordered months ago. Is there really room for six
new monarda (bee balm) plants in my perennial bed? I'd better
decide before UPS dumps big boxes on my front porch!
As you admire your spring bulbs, take a moment to do some
advance planning for fall. Are there spots that are bare?
Take some pictures now (with a clearly defined point of
reference) to use as a planting guide in October. You may
think you will remember where the bare spots are, but you
won't. I have a small garden that combines blue scilla with
yellow Tete-a-Tete daffodils. Gorgeous, but there are a
few bare spots.
May flowers bring bleeding heart and tulips followed by
impatiens and dahlias. By fall I'll never remember where
those bulbs were needed. The other thing that I do to jog
the memory is to make a circle of pebbles in the area that
needs planting. They aren't noticeable and seem to stay
put.
Dahlias -- the ideal tuber when it is taken out of storage
-- will be plump with two or more clearly defined eyes.
This year most of mine were shriveled, with no signs of
life. Why? I haven't a clue. The only thing that was different
was the temperature. Usually the problem with winter storage
is warmth. Not this year. So all of my tubers have been
spread out under lights (for warmth). Slowly a few eyes
are appearing and next week hopefully we will see signs
of life.
Unfortunately it was my favorite plant that seems to have
been hit the hardest. A beautiful red called Bishop of Llangdorf.
Over the years I have given a lot of these away, so if anyone
has a few extra I would love one back.
Once your dahlia tuber has eyes, try to slice it into several
plants. We find an Exacto knife to be the best for this
job. Sometimes the eyes are too close to do this without
sacrificing both plants. In that case, leave them alone.
(When the extra plants come up, cut them off.)
Depending on how many tubers you have, either plant them
in an individual pot or put a lot of them in a tray. Fill
an unslotted tray with soil-less mix, add water and stir
until it is nicely moist. Put the tuber in and cover with
dirt. The tip of the eye can be visible if you so choose.
Put the tray where it is warm and light and keep it watered.
In a few weeks the tuber will have put down roots. At that
point, I would transplant it into its own pot.
Now why do I go to all this trouble? After all, you can
plant the tuber outside and it will grow just fine. I do
it because A) I want a head start on getting flowers and
B) I lose track of where I've put it and it stands a chance
of being walked on. By starting them in April, I have a
decent-sized green plant that will go in the ground after
June 1. Dahlias do not like to be cold!
I made a mistake in my previous column. I said transplant
when your seedling has four sets of true leaves. It should
have been two sets or four leaves.
My impatienses are about ready to be transplanted (all 250
of them.)That equals 62 four-packs or eight trays and two
more tables of lights.
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