- Author: Erin Mahaney
Each fall, I plant a variety of bulbs to enjoy in the garden each spring and to ensure plenty of cut flowers. But I never plant tulips or other bulbs that need to be chilled in our mild climate. While I admire my neighbor's tulip beds, I prefer the ease of planting other flowers, such as daffodils, anemones, ranunculus, and snowdrops.
So when my husband and I toured Keukenhof in the Netherlands during the park's 75th anniversary this spring, I was adamant that I would not purchase any bulbs for shipping home. I hadn't been tempted by tulips before and I didn't expect to be tempted then. Spoiler alert: I didn't buy any bulbs there or in the gorgeous flower markets in Amsterdam. I was 100% tulip-proof on my travels!
This was no easy task because, as others have written in thisblog,Keukenhof offers a spectacular display of tulips and other spring-flowering bulbs. More than 7 million spring-flowering bulbs, as well as sculptures and art, are distributed across approximately 79 acres. While our visit took place on an unseasonably cold, rainy day, the park was still spectacular with enormous garden beds planted with a wide variety of flowers. I never knew so many varieties of tulips existed! At the beginning, I naively told my husband that I was only going to take photos of my favorites. Nearly 450 photos later, apparently, I had a lot of favorites!
But when I got home and two days later there was a tulip sale, including bulbs featured at Keukenhof. I broke down and ordered several varieties, just for fun. This then raised the big question – to chill or not to chill?
Tulips and certain other bulbs, such as hyacinths, requirevernalization, which means that the plants need a certain amount of chilling to grow and set flowers. They may bloom without chilling, but the flowers may be stunted. Some plants requirevernalization, while others benefit from chilling, but do not require it. Different sources of information specify different minimum temperatures and time periods for chilling tulip bulbs, but, in general, tulips require chilling temperatures below 55 degrees for approximately 10-12 weeks to ensure proper development of the blooms. Luckily, this chilling process is easy to duplicate by placing the bulbs in a paper bag and chilling them in refrigerator drawer for a minimum of 6-8 weeks before planting them. But don't put them in a drawer with apples or other fruit because the fruit gives off ethylene gas as it ripens, which interferes with the bulbs' flower development. It is helpful to write down the date when the bulbs should be removed from the refrigerator to ensure that you don't forget when to plant them. I usually write the date on the bag and also put a reminder on my calendar.
Will tulips bloom in our area without chilling? Perhaps. Some bulbs come pre-chilled. Sometimes, our area has a colder winter. I never chill my crocus bulbs, and they bloom just fine. In contrast, my snowdrop flowers have been a bit stunted the past few years and, if I plant more in the future, I will try chilling them first. In any event, since I rarely plant tulips, I want to promote favorable growing and blooming conditions by chilling the bulbs. I will treat the tulips as annuals because they are unlikely to return for more than a year, perhaps two, in our mild climate.
As much as I love growing my usual types of spring-flowering bulbs, I'm looking forward to trying something a little different this year that will bring fond memories of our travels.
- Author: Mike Gunther
November color
Maples, pistache, purple plums
View the beauty today
- Author: Betsy Buxton
For many years, I heard that peonies cannot be grown in California. The reasons: it is in the wrong part of the country, it is too warm here, and finally, “it just won't work.” I really did, until I went to Fioli with a horticulture class. Marsha, the instructor, felt that her students needed some eye-opening examples of the kind of gardening we mere students could do IF we had the time, the money, and the extra gardeners a historic estate had.
The roses, the camellias, and the fabulous vines clinging to the back of the brick mansion looked as though the bricks were draped with sheer white lace! But, what was this: a peony bed full of delicate pink and white blooms; the scent from these blooming flowers was heavenly. But these were peonies, and they were thriving and blooming -- things that I had been told were impossible! I had to know the secret behind all of this!
I timidly went to speak to a nearby gardener, excused myself, and asked about the secrets of growing peonies. Laughing, he explained the secret: for herbaceous peonies (P. lactiflora) to grow and thrive, they need a good chilly winter. Here, in the coastal area of California, with no snow, putting a bag of ice over the peony bed once or twice during the average winter will give the peonies the cold they crave. Easy peasy!
With that information, I was off to the races (as they say) to grow peonies in a raised bed in the side yard. Unfortunately, after a few years, we had a very wet winter and the rhizomes drowned, since then I have been growing them in pots since my yard is less than 5 feet above the water table in Suisun City. I have also gone from the herbaceous varieties to the Itoh varieties, which require less chilling time and have HUGE flowers of yellow, deep maroon, and coppery colors and do not require as much sunlight.
This year, I am trying another herbaceous peony – in a pot this time, to see if all goes well. Since the rhizomes cost between $6 at the big box stores and over $100 from specialty growers, I am not going all in – this time.
- Author: Tina Saravia
For many years, fall was my time for planting, cleaning up the garden, and all the other things I couldn't do in the summer when it was too hot to work. I thought that this year would be the same, but not so. For one, we had extended hot weather into the beginning of autumn, so we couldn't do anything then. By the time it got cooler, I'd found other things to do.
Because I have not been as busy in the garden, I have enjoyed the bounties from my garden. Last week, we picked a record 2.5 lbs. from our olive tree (Olea europea), half a pound more than last year. The tree doesn't get any irrigation in the summer, except for the rare buckets of water thrown in to keep the surrounding plants alive. It produced enough to give us a small bottle of olive oil from the community milling.
For the last few weeks, I've been slowly picking pomegranates as they show signs of cracking and giving them away to friends and neighbors walking by. I've been enjoying watching each fruit get bigger and redder. I've been very careful not to pick too soon as they don't get more ripe once they're picked. I did learn that the cracking is actually a sign of uneven moisture, especially towards harvest time. After it rained one night, some fruit have suddenly cracked open where I can see thearils, which could lead to bacterial infection unless picked soon. I'm going to be busy processing these with my gadget (shown in the picture), and I need to think about who else has not gotten a pomegranate.
- Author: Michelle Krespi
For the past two years I've made my Fall trip to Denmark to visit my new Danish Family! I always wanted to write about a plant that was resoundingly Danish and on this past trip I realized the houseplant I kept seeing over and over was Pilea peperomioides, commonly known as the Chinese Money plant or,UFO plant, Missionary plant and Pancake plant. The fact that it was named a “Chinese” plant threw me off to this plants origin story.
Although the plant was first collected by the Scottish botanist George Forrest both in 1906 and then again in 1910 it was found again by Norwegian missionary Agnar Espegren in Yunnan Province of southern China in both 1906 and again in 1910 as he was fleeing the Province. Espegren brought his cuttings back to Norway, by way of India in 1946. From there this plant spread throughout Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Finland (after the Second World War), and Norway. Initially it was spread unknowingly by amateur gardeners via cuttings but by the late 20th century it became well known by Western botanists. Pilea peperomiodies is part of the nettle family, Urticaceae, of flowering plants. It became widely commercially available in the 2010's and 2020's.[1] It has become a symbol for prosperity and abundance because the Chinese believe it attracts wealth and financial success.[2]
The Chinese Money plant is an erect, evergreen perennial with green, glossy, circular coin-shaped (hence the name “Money plant”) leaves that can grow as large as 4” in diameter on long petioles that attach a little above the center of the leaf. The plant is hairless and can grow up to 12” tall and wide in the wild. Still, the indoor ones that I saw were even larger.[3] The picture to the right shows a mature plant with pups![4] The stem is unbranched and grows erect, ranging in color from greenish to dark brown. The white flowers are inconspicuous. The plant can tolerate temperatures that go as low as 68 degrees Fahrenheit upwards to 100 degrees F. Keep in mind that the plant thrives in warm, humid conditions. If those conditions don't exist in your environment, you can place pebbles in the saucer underneath your plant and fill it with water, making sure the bottom of the pot is not touching the water. The other way is to mist your plant daily.
One of the great qualities of this plant is that they are extremely easy to propagate. There are three effective ways to do this. The first is to propagate through offshoots from the main stem of the mother plant. With a disinfected blade (wipe with alcohol before doing this), cut a baby, (offshoot) from the stem. Put the stem in a bottle of water so the tip is submerged, and when the roots reach 1”-2” long, it is ready to be planted in your soil. It is so easy to propagate this plant it has been called the “pass it on plant.”
Another method to make it even easier is to harvest one of the “pups” or “babies” that grow. This plant has two kinds- offshoot babies and rhizome babies. The latter pops up in the soil near the mother plant. They are connected to the mother by an umbilical-like cord under the soil. Once you see this happening and the pup reaches 2-3” tall it can be removed and planted in a new container. Remember that the larger the plantlet is the better its chances of survival. The best time to do this is during the growing season, (the warmer months). Plant these plants in well-draining soils since they don't tolerate sitting in soggy soil. To encourage your plant to produce pups you can increase your plants access to nutrients by fertilizing it once a month during its growing season. Use a balanced fertilizer, 10-10-10 diluted to half strength once a month.
The last method is to actually cut the top off of your plant, root it in water and replant it.[5] Pilea peperomioides thrives in a soil mixture of three parts Peat mixed with three parts Coconut Coir and two parts Perlite.[6]
Finally, it is important to remove any dead or damaged leaves, which will increase light and ventilation to the plant, helping it to thrive. The Chinese Money plant is low-maintenance and tough, making it an excellent plant for those just beginning to grow a green thumb!
[1] Wikipedia- Pilea Peperomiodies
[2] Website thriveogarden.com May 2, 2024
[3] Wikipedia- Pilea peperomioides
[4] Image uploaded from wikimedia.com, upload.wikimedia.org
[5] Website- thehealthyhouseplant.com
[6] Website- www.wikihow.com
