Texas Gardening: What bulbs (if any) don't have to be lifted to rebloom, 1 by SteveIndy

SteveIndy wrote:
One thing to remember is that glads and cannas both prefer warmer soil during growth to do well, which you don't have in the UK (I lived in the Netherlands for a couple of years and the climate there was just about identical to that of the UK, being just across the North Sea). I was reading through this thread and surprised at the difficulty people seem to have to get any plants to return. While glads are not technically "bulbs" (neither are crocus, which are corms and members of the Iris family just like glads), they are very similar in most functional respects. Glads are native to South Africa which doesn't have cold winters. Bearded Iris here love hot weather and do well here, but if they're planted to deeply they will not flower, and if they get soggy they'll rot. Just haven't had the problem here except for tulips. Our average low temps in Ft Worth are in the mid to low 30's for three months running in winter...enough for the majority of bulbs to reset for flowering. Things like tulips, lilac, and peonies have longer and lower cold requirements than other plants, and I'm experimenting with early blooming peonies to see how they do. I gave my neighbor several types of daffodils, some lilies, and muscari three years ago, and they do virtually NO maintenance to their yard, and they all returned last year. Flowers that bloom late sometimes struggle with our heat, like late peonies and many types of Oriental lilies. The solution is to look for early-blooming Orientals or those with known heat tolerance, or look to the "Orienpets" out there that are a cross between Trumpet lilies (which have high heat tolerance) and Orientals. Asiatic lilies perform great here and mine return every year. I'm tellin' ya, plant bulbs and corms deeply in a raised, well drained bed. You'll be surprised at the results:-) Maybe southern TX is much more difficult, since the average low temp in Nov through Feb in Houston is 13-14 F warmer than in DFW. Below is picture of white Carnegie hyacinths returning 2nd year along side of house (3-7-04). Stalks are not quite as full as first year but otherwise great.