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Green Today, Gone Tomorrow?

© Emily Levitt

Nothing is more depressing than the blanks left in my garden by the faded hostas and ferns. Until the early bulbs show up, pine straw or 'golden' mummularia were my favorite options to views of empty spaces, until a few years ago.

I saw a photograph of Italian Arum in a book on perennial gardening
('Perennials' by Pamela Harper and Fred McGourty) and loved the appearance of the leaves. When I read further that they died out in spring and re-appeared in the fall, I was really intrigued. This was fairly early into my gardening experience, so the fact that arum was not in its' foliage season made no difference to me. It was early Sepetember, and still quite hot, but no matter. I wanted to put arum my garden right that minute.

None of the big retail garden centers had any arum. They didn't even know what I ws looking for. The fact is that most of these centers have to put material out when it is actually blooming, whether it's the best time to plant a particular specimen or not, so the public will know what they are buying. It's simply a fact of retailing in quantity.

I complained about my futile search while shopping at a small, out of the way nursery. The manager looked me straight in the face and said that she had it, but I'd have to buy it on faith and trust.

She took me way out back to the nursery's potting area, and pointed to several one-gallon containers of ...dirt.

"There it is," she said. "If it dosen't come up, you can bring it back." What an offer. I bought all she had.

I took the time to mark their location when I put them out, on 90-degree day in September. I put snapdragons around them later, in October, when the days cooled down to a mere 82-degree high.

Cold weather finally hit the northern Atlanta suburbs in mid December, and lo!
and behold! up popped the little swords of arum leaves.

The first year, the stands of leaves spread very slowly. Subsequently, I've encouraged them to increase with a light soaking of 10-60-10. I use one teaspooon to a gallon of water once a month. This increases the number of tubers which form, so each patch gets thicker, faster.

*EDITOR"S UPDATE-3/1/00- This year I think the patches tripled in area, and are still spreading. The fertilizer is the key!*

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