Herbaceous peony

It came as a shock to me when I first began gardening that not everyone can grow tulips and peonies. If you live in the south, most spring bulbs that we in the north take for granted, like tulips, daffodils, crocuses and such, just won't make it down there. But of course, they have things that we can't grow in the ground year round either.

The problem with trying to grow tulips in the warmer climates is that these bulbs and plants need a period of cold weather - typically below 45°F - in order to flower. This is called vernalization. Bulbs can be pre-chilled and then planted, but southerners may not want to be bothered, just as many northerners may not want to dig up tender bulbs/corms/tubers in the fall, such as dahlias and gladiolus.

Cold temperatures also affect warm climate plants in a similar way when it comes to producing blooms. Several years ago, I purchased some Amazon lily (Eucharis grandiflora) bulbs while on a visit to Florida. I was taken by their beautiful white blooms and large, shiny green leaves. I brought them home, potted them up, and they grew wonderfully. But they didn't bloom.

Amazon Lily Eucharis grandiflora

The lush green foliage of my Amazon lilies made for a beautiful house plant, but I longed for those gorgeous flowers. Why wouldn't my plants bloom? Quite by accident, I discovered that this is one of several plants that need cooler night temperatures in order to produce flowers. One winter, I put the Amazon lily in a spare bedroom that we only heat to about 55-60°F. When spring came, I put the plant back in the living room and one day I walked in there and found several blooms had appeared!

Christmas Cactus Schlumbergera x buckleyi

Other plants that require this cooling off period in order to bloom are Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti, which are also responsive to the shorter daylight hours. Some orchids can be spurred to bloom by keeping them cool for a period of time as well.

Sometimes it takes awhile for the lights to come on in my brain, but I had a thought a couple of weeks ago about this cool temperature thing. In all the years I've had jade plants, both common and variegated, I've never had a single one of them bloom. I didn't even realize that they were capable of producing beautiful flowers until I saw a large plant in full bloom last year at Planterra in Michigan.

Jade Plant Crassula ovata

So what I'm going to do is put my jade plants in the cooler bedroom for the winter, then bring them out when spring gets here. No, that isn't exactly how things would be in their native environment, but plants can be fooled and coerced in many ways. This won't hurt them and maybe, just maybe, they'll pop out blooms.

Azaleas are somewhat of an iffy sort here in Zone 5b, meaning they are supposed to survive our cold winters and bloom beautifully in the spring, but sometimes they do neither.  I've lost a couple of them to the cold and while the lone shrub we have now has made it through a couple of tough winters, it didn't always bloom much come spring.

Knowing it is a marginal shrub for me, I've always mulched well, but there are other outside forces that conspire to bring it down from its potential glory. Freezing and thawing, drying cold winds, and scalding winter sun can do a number on trees and shrubs, so a little extra protection may be needed for some of them, including azaleas.
 

A couple of years ago, I decided to wrap the azalea in burlap. Our local Walmart had plenty of it in their fabric department for $2.49 a yard, so I bought 1½ yards, which was plenty to lay over the shrub and wrap it loosely.
 

I secured the burlap at the bottom with a hooked bungee cord, so the winds wouldn't blow it away. Other ways of keeping it in place are with ground staples or stakes.
 

 

I've said before that I love mums, but in the past the mums must not have loved me. I've bought them, planted them, and enjoyed their lovely blooms at a time of year when there isn't a great lot of color in the garden. Then spring comes, and they don't. I remember a few autumns ago when I bought a lot of the Prophet Series mums (by Yoder Brothers) and lost every single one of them.

Ouch.

I transferred my affections to asters, and while I do love them, they aren't mums. But I'm not a quitter, and I usually get what I want.

And I. Want. Mums.

'Bolero'

So I did some research. I can be taught, and I just knew there was some way to grow beautiful mums for more than one season. I have seen many people do it without even trying, so there must be some way for me to do it, too.

I will say that I've had great success with certain types of mums. Those that are labeled as Dendranthema work well for me. They're usually more of a daisy-type mum and that's okay with me, because I like daisies very much and with them coming in all sorts of colors, that's just all the better. 'Clara Curtis' and 'Bolero' are two that fall into that category. And they spread quickly.

'Clara Curtis'

Those Prophet Series mums are supposed to be fairly hardy, so why weren't they hardy for me? What was I doing wrong? I longed for their wide variation in colors and their volumes of blooms.

One year I saw some Belgian mums for sale. What makes these different or special? I was in a Meijer store and overheard a woman asking the help about them. They mentioned that they were supposed to be a little hardier. So of course, I came home and checked them out online.

Hardiness notwithstanding, these mums are known for their number of blooms. A cushion-type, they've got hundreds on one plant, though they're smaller in size. The stems are stronger, too. How many times have you broken a stem while planting mums? Belgian mums can take more abuse. I read too, that they can bloom in the spring as well. Trim off the spent blooms and then they'll bloom beautifully in the fall. No pinching back until the 4th of July for these either.

I bought one. All I really cared about was the hardiness. It didn't survive.
 

'High Regards'

But what about the mums I already have and the ones that I long to have? How to get them not to succumb to winter's icy grasp?

Besides making sure the mums I'm buying are indeed hardy garden mums and not the florist mums (which are not hardy here in Zone 5), here's the thing: They need good drainage. Yep. That's it. It's the number one reason for mum failure. They like rich soil, but they'll grow okay in poor dirt. You can fertilize them for more blooms, but they'll bloom very well without it. They like sun or partial shade, but they'll bloom some in full shade, too. But wet feet? They hate that.

This can be a bit tricky, I'm thinking, since they're relatively shallow-rooted. They like it moist right at the surface, but they don't like staying in a cold, wet hole during the winter. So last fall, I made sure I planted the mums my mom passed on to me in soil that I knew would drain well. Every single one of them returned this spring.

A couple more tips: Don't prune them back. The dead stems and foliage will help protect them during the winter. Select and plant them in the spring. This will give them a better chance to become established.

'Red Dandy'