I have gladiolas all dug up, about to dig dahlias. Not sure what else to lift. Would pine bark mulch be good to store bulbs in? In garage?
media for storing bulbs?
I was getting ready to ask the same question about cannas. I am thinning mine and will have about 100 if no one wants to plant them this fall. I know peat is recommended, but honestly, I don't have room for a bale of peat.
Although in my area, I rarely dig and store bulbs over winter, I seem to recall that the only two options I've ever seen are peat moss and wadded or dry shredded newspaper. After all, the idea is just to protect the bulbs/tubers/rhizomes from moist conditions (indoors, be that home or garage) during storage so either product should work ok. Since the bulbs will assume the ambient temperature of the storage area regardless of the storage medium used, one should work as good as the other.
This message was edited Nov 21, 2013 8:43 AM
Vermiculite and perlite will work. Try not to let them touch in case one goes bad. A light dusting of fungicide wouldn't hurt. I actually stored my potatoes this summer in perlite as an experiment and still have usable ones.
dust with sulfur for fungus? or dust with cinnamon? I searched bing for peacock orchid bulb storage and they suggested sand. that sounds really nice and dry.
This message was edited Nov 21, 2013 11:39 AM
The things I have tried to winter over always seemed to dry out. The problems did not seem to be keeping them dry. In my garage, there is no way they would ever get wet. Even my garlic cloves dry up before I can use them all.
Marty, that is the problem I have with onions and garlic. I have tried for years to save my multiplying onions since they are very expensive to buy the bulbs. This year, Producers had them available in July, and posted to hold them till August/September to plant. I stored the bulbs as directed in a paper bag. When I pulled it out in late August, more than half of the bulbs had dehydrated past the point of recovery. The remaining are growing and multiplying but I still am confused on how to "over summer" them successfully. My friend's two heads of garlic turned into one, but at least I have it planted.
I'm in zone 7b, and thought I didn't have to dig my bulbs before winter. I still have canna, gladiola and walking onion in the dirt. Was going to plant the crocosmia I just received in trade and my stored daffs once this icy weather lets up. Is this a bad idea? And did I make a mistake leaving my bulbs in ground?
I am in 8b and am only digging my cannas because they are so thick they aren't blooming very well.
You can actually kill cannas? Most of the ones I've seen have been left in the ground for years upon years and still thrive and bloom. Same goes for any glads I've ever planted.
According to the new Zone maps, I'm apparently in Z-7A.
Every caladium bulb I have ever dug and tried to save, dried out and died. Anyone think I should not dig them up?
Ok skeeter, that's what I thought. I live in an small old town, lots of the gardens here have plants that haven't moved in decades, cannas being one of them, so I considered them "safe" when prepping for winter. However, mine was bare root when I planted it this spring and am unsure of the cultivar so now am hoping it's hardy enough to pull through this freaky weather! Did you say the gladiola would be ok also? I hope so, they are another first year plant for me.
Steadycam - this website says for the most part caladium bulbs should be dug up and stored once temps drop and stay below 60, but temps persisting below 50 would almost certainly kill them.
http://www.classiccaladiums.com/caladium_FAQ.htm
No, my cannas aren't dying. They are just so thick they aren't blooming very well. It is recommended that they be thinned every few years the same as iris, daffodils and other plants from bulbs.
steadycam3--no experience here with Caladium, but there is a lady on my daughter's street in Austin that has the most beautiful caladium I have ever seen. They are the large green and white ones and are growing under big live oak trees. Since we are generally colder than you, I would think it would be worth a try. Don't know where yours are planted. Her trees may give her's some protection.
While I love caladiums as much as the next person, I've always found them cheap enough at the correct Spring planting time that I never worried about trying to save this year's plants. That is not to say that in some years, a few plants always seem to overwinter despite my lack of care.
To answer the gladiola question, no, I never ever dig glads and try to store them. To me at least (and when I plant glads at all, they're the common varieties), if I can buy a dozen to two dozen for less than $10 or so, digging, storing, and finding room to store them isn't a good use of my time or limited space. Invariably though, if I plant a couple dozen in any given year, mulch them well in Fall and then have 3/4 of them come back up the next year, I'm ahead of the game as far as I'm concerned.
Going out on a limb here, but last year I mulched my beds heavier than ever (4"+) and had plants that weren't supposed to survive, come back up in Spring and grow just as if they were never subjected to dormancy at all. For those plants on the freezing viability borderline in any given Zone, a heavy layer of your preferred mulch is probably far better for the plants than disturbing them by digging, storing, and then replanting. Depending on the mulch used, you're actually creating a thin version of a compost pile whereby some minimal heat is generated through natural decomposition of the material being used. Note though that if you skimp on the mulch thickness, say no more than a couple of inches at most and regardless of any organic content, you may have enhanced your soil base and the appearance of a bed but you've done little to protect the/any plants underneath.
As to storage, remember also that although we may buy many commercial bulbs/tubers and/or rhizomes that have been successfully dug, stored, and then shipped for sale, those "plants" have been stored by the commercial grower under optimum conditions in specialty warehouses with humidity, air flow and other factors carefully controlled... definitely NOT the same conditions that your average home gardener can hope to obtain. At some point in the past, I just made the conscious decision that for some plants, it was easier to buy or trade for "new" plants than it was to try to overwinter them with any reliable success.
Although we don't typically think of our soil base this way, remember that in most areas and particularly in the South, your soil absorbs and retains heat when heat is available (think of a nice sunny day regardless of air temps), releasing that heat far more slowly during non heating hours than the air immediately above it. Thus, while the air temps at any given spot (not location) may be at 32° or below, the soil directly beneath that spot (not location) may be as much as 5-12° warmer and well within a given plant's viability range.
As an experiment, buy or borrow a soil thermometer (a decent one can usually be had for less than $15 at any good garden center) and place it in a spot in your garden where an average daily sun/shade ratio can be obtained. Check frequently over a period of perhaps two weeks, more or less as you have time and the wherewithal to do so, and note both the ground temps as well as the current air temperatures. Keep a Daily Log if you like, noting both temperatures in your Log. I believe you'll find that invariably, the soil temps 6-12" down in the soil are higher by several degrees than the immediate air temps directly above the soil thermometer and in many cases, are well within the wintering over limits of many bulbs that we assume should be dug and stored in late Fall or early Winter.
Bezziec, can't wait until I have that problem w my canna, I love dividing things, it's like getting free plants! When do they typically bloom? I can't wait to find out what color mine is..I got some 'black knight' seeds from another DGer and hope they'll look good together :)
steadycam3 you can all of email Caladium Bulbs 4 Less Bill is very nice and loves to help you care for them. http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/5978/
I have orange cannas and yellow/orange and would love to find more colors.
StillPlaysWDirt---I have tall orange cannas and medium sized yellow ones (maybe the same as ilovejesus99). My gardening friend and I laugh and call them an invasive species. If we ever happen to be coming to the same Roundup please ask me to bring some.. I also got one tropicana at the fall RU in Arlington. Sure hope it multiplies!!!
Ooh tropicanna! That just sounds pretty, I hope I can go to the next roundup. This would be my first, maybe I'll have something to offer :)
I dug my glads, as the ones I didn't dig had all died off the first winter except the 10 year old gladiolus under the vitex that never blooms but I can't get out, I get a bit colder here than most of my area I think. Cannas and lily of the valley used to stay in the ground, although the drought killed mine and I have not replanted, probably won't.
The monster I had to dig were dahlias and they did not do well where I had them this summer. I also dug my peacock orchids, they do not overwinter well, and the $20 or so worth of gladiolas I had are in a box in the garage covered with organic potting mix.
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I have a tropicana and it is about 10 years old in the same spot and I thin it whenever anyone wants a start of it plus it is now in 3 other spots the striped leaves and orange flowers make it the most admired plant in my entire garden ( by visitors) Now as to the glads I just mulch a lot of mine but even so I think that I usually replace mine every other year due to loss from insects and voles ETC last year I bought way to many (@ to cents each who could resist ) if I store any it is in my attic which is about ideal for storage cool bu never below freezing for outside storage see the thread titled frost
It has to do with the depth of freezes in the ground- caladiums are more water than daffs and cannas, they freeze quicker. Heavy mulch will help retain heat and block the the freeze depth. How deep your water pipes are buried is a GOOD clue of your freezing depth, and there are charts somewhere that tell how many hours at that temp gets that depth. Texas has so MANY zones and differences in it! And several even IN the Metroplex that sometimes you simply cannot guess what you are going to get in the way of ground temps.
What is a tropicana Grits?
It's a variety of Canna called Tropicanna, It has orange blossums and beautiful variegated leaves, green pink and yellow.
Skeeter that is such good info about the caladium, glads and mulching. I think I may get more mulch for my shady bed, it could probably use a thicker layer since it's only about 2 inches of mulch at the moment. I still have no idea what I should do with my stored bulbs, daffs have been in a paper bag & peat since April-May,muscari the same, and the crocosmia is from a recent trade, some have green leaves so I put them in a pot w soil and the dormant (?) ones I kept in a paper sack w no medium. All are in a cardboard box in the dark corner of my laundry room. (65-70 deg). What could I be doing differently? Also, do walking onions need to be dug if they still have long greens on them in a raised bed. We have been below 50 for well over a week and even had snow and ice pellets.
Here is a pic of that gorgeous Tropicanna from Plant Files:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/29569/#b
Pretty Canna!