Home » Plants & Animals » Alpines and Bulbs » Spring Delights. - Page 2

Spring Delights. - Page 2

© Gary Buckley

It mashes the smaller(up to 14" thick") tree-roots nicely, saving me a lot of tedious hand-work coping with these.

The rest, I will dig with my mattock (aka, "grubbing hoe"), a great, versatile garden tool, in stages, as my energy and reviving muscular tone, permits. It cuts and levers out the ever-present, invading tree- roots, removes stones that work up each winter, and allows one to cultivate well, around plants, judiciously.

In my lakeside gardens, which are still colder than in my sheltered, warmer, more advanced 1 acre backlot in the bush away from the major Lake infuences, the Delphiniums are now waking up, as are a couple of Martagons.

But I had a lovely surprise today, while removing the last of the mulches. In a quiet semi-shaded corner garden, in the front of the cottage facing the Lake, early last Fall, I had a bare patch, about 4' x 4', after removing some spare bulbs for an MRLS Sale. So after all my tribulations in recent years, with losing most of my Martagon seedlings, produced by the bag or pot methods, before they seemed big enough to be planted out, I decided that this garden spot would be just the place, for me to follow the example of the "old-hand" Prairie Martagon breeders, like Jean Ericksen, Fred Tarlton, Dan Dale, Marvin Joslin, and Barrie Strohman, and follow Nature's way instead.

And so I scattered over it, the large Tomato juice can of chaffy residues from cleaning my Martagon seeds last Fall, in late September, prior to their distribution via the Exchanges, and personally. Then I put about 1" of moist, used Sunshine Potting Mix over it, and then about a 6" thick coating of leaves. The usual first snow of Halloween, at the end of October, did not come, till late November, to stay. Then a coating of over 1' eventually built up,and remained till early April.

But when I came to gently raking this patch, this afternoon,I was delighted to see hundreds of baby Martagon first single leaves coming up, like grass in a Lawn, throughout it!. So I carefully cleaned away most of the old dry tree-leaves, that can carry rotting organisms, and keep the bases of the lily leaves too moist, to give the bulblets every chance to grow strongly. Each one had a nice hypogeal bulblet,with a good single root, at its base. I will fertilize them next week, with a light dressing of fast and slow-release mix, of Pink Vigoro plus Osmocote 14/14/14. with a little extra Superphosphate. That should boost them along nicely.

The copyright of the article Spring Delights. - Page 2 in Alpines and Bulbs is owned by . Permission to republish Spring Delights. - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.