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.
 

 

It’s been a rough summer. If you live in the Midwest, chances are you’ve had enough of the hot, dry weather and long for soothing rains and cool breezes. Some years are like that. My 96-year-old grandma has told us many times about the summer of 1934, when it was so hot and dry that the little chicks fell into the cracks in the yard and needed help getting out. 1936 brought more of the same.

We like to whine about the weather and we moan about our sad-looking plants. August is not known for being the best time in the garden, but we can take advantage of these less-than-optimal conditions to assess what does work.

As I walked around the garden this evening, I noticed one of my favorite plants, Tricyrtis sp. – more commonly known as Toad Lily – seems to be barreling into fall without missing a beat. I love this plant because it blooms in shade and it blooms in fall, when there isn’t a whole lot of color in either. Its blooms look like little orchids and in many species, they’re stacked up and down the stem. Lovely!

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is both blooming and setting seed and the monarchs are loving every minute of it. Plants in the Asclepias family are the lone host plant for the monarch caterpillars. This drought-tolerant plant scoffs at the weather we’ve had. I’ve got both the more common orange as well as the yellow cultivar ‘Hello Yellow’ and both are looking fine.

Several ornamental grasses are doing well, too. That’s likely because many of them are common to our area in their native forms. Take Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), for example. It doesn’t take much of anything for this one to thrive.

I know, summer is wearing on you. Me, too. But I’m glad the entire garden isn’t unhappy with the hand we’ve been dealt. Walk around your own garden and take stock of those things that are doing well. Then grow more of them.