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“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
– Charles Dickens,
Great Expectations, 1861
Winter aconites and snowdrops are blooming here in Ann Arbor, and most overnight lows are finally above freezing – which means we can start shipping right on time this year on Monday, April 1. Woo-hoo!
We still have plenty of incredible spring-planted bulbs waiting to add their beauty and fragrance to your summer garden. Too busy to shop? Just choose one or two of our seven easy samplers and you’re done. Or check out all of our fabulous dahlias, iris, daylilies, glads, tuberoses, crocosmia, crinums, rain lilies, and true lilies – and order yourself some summer excitement now!
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First the bad news: We recently learned that the last Dutch grower of the vibrant pink cactus dahlia ‘Radiance’ has quit growing it. That means this spring’s tubers may be the last we’ll ever offer – so if you want this 1950s classic, now is the time to order it!
Then the good news: Three great dahlias came through winter storage better than expected, so ‘White Aster’, ‘Gypsy Girl’, and the immortal ‘Jersey’s Beauty’ are once again available at our website. Woohoo!
And finally the really big news: For the first time in years, three exceptionally rare beauties are also for sale again – heart-stoppingly lovely ‘Winsome’ dahlia, perky, bee-friendly ‘Mrs. H. Brown’ dahlia, and unique, spectacular ‘Ehemanii’ canna with its gracefully dangling clusters of brilliant rose flowers. Woohoo!!!
We’re rationing ‘Winsome’ and ‘Ehemanii’ with a limit of one per customer, and most of these other treasures are also in very short supply – so if you don’t want to miss them, order today!
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We’re not sure, but when I saw this tiger swallowtail feeding on my Henry’s lilies last summer, I remembered garden-writer Felder Rushing telling me that they flocked to the double tiger lilies in his Mississippi garden.
Could it be that the orange color and turk’s-cap form remind them of similar North American natives such as Lilium superbum that they’ve been feeding on for millennia?
If you want to see for yourself, Henry’s lily is one of four spring-planted lilies we’re shipping this April, and you can also order our two tiger lilies and L. superbum now for fall shipping.
And if these incredible butterflies visit your orange lilies, please send us pictures!
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New to our offerings this year, wine-red ‘Royal Beauty’ daylily is making a splash in the spring 2019 issue of Heirloom Gardener where it’s the only flower included in their article “the freshest heirloom releases of the season.”
Published by the same folks as Mother Earth News and Utne Reader, Heirloom Gardener focuses on edible plants, but it always includes something of interest to flower-lovers – including, in this issue, “A Celebration of Lilacs” and “Victorian Plant Women.” See more or subscribe at heirloomgardener.com.
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I learned something new recently: “When cutting gladiolus, it is always best to remove the top bud, which often results in more flowers in the stem opening to their full potential.”
So says head gardener Tom Brown of Parham House and Gardens in Sussex. Here’s some other helpful advice he offered in an excellent article in the July 2018 Gardens Illustrated.
“Gladiolus are relatively easy to grow,” Brown writes, “and as the corms are so inexpensive you can afford to use them as annuals, meaning you can experiment with different colors and styles from one year to the next.”
If you don’t want to buy new ones every year, they can also be dug and stored or – depending on your hardiness zone – “mulched heavily in sheltered, free-draining areas” To try that, cut the stalks down after frost, “cover the clump with a plastic bin liner [storage tub] to keep the corms dry, and mulch liberally with compost.”
Although Brown notes that many sources recommend planting glads earlier, he prefers “waiting until at least May” – again depending on your hardiness zone – “when the soil has warmed and the chance of frosts faded.” For a longer bloom season, he recommends “staggering your planting through May and June at fortnightly intervals.”
If you’re growing them for cutting, “you should be able to squeeze 60 to 100 corms into a square meter” which means planting them roughly four inches apart. To grow them intermingled with other flowers, Brown removes “a spade’s width and depth of soil” and then sets “five to seven corms at the base of the hole.”
Brown says that planting corms about ten inches deep gives them “consistent moisture and temperature so the flowers need less staking.” Smaller glads like ‘Atom’, ‘Starface’, and the Abyssinian glad often need no staking, while full-size glads “simply need four stakes in the corners of the clump and then string around the perimeter and a few pieces in between.”
Now doesn’t that sound easy? To give these tips a try and “indulge your garden and your vases with bold and beautiful spikes,” why not order a few glads now for April delivery?
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Our early March newsletter included articles about
You can read all of our back-issues at oldhousegardens.com/NewsletterArchives – and we post the best articles at our blog!
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