Tall Lily
A Lily to Look Up To
Q. My clump of Cardiocrinum giganteum had flowers each of the last two summers in my northwest Connecticut garden. When is the best time to lift the bulbs and divide them?
NOT FOR LILLIPUT The Himalayan lily (actually a lily cousin) can grow 15 feet tall and produce up to 20 flowers. Then it dies.
A. Although the word “lust” is overused to describe the desire for plants, it is difficult to imagine a gardener whose heart would not beat faster at the thought of a lily 7 to 15 feet tall with as many as 20 highly perfumed white flowers.
This gratification requires commitment. It usually takes three to five years for a C. giganteum bulb to grow large enough to bloom. And then, perhaps not surprisingly, it dies. A few iconoclasts insist that bulbs can reflower, and you may be proving them right, but it is more likely that you started with at least two bulbs similar in size.
While C. giganteum is called giant Himalayan lily, it is a lily cousin, with broad, handsome foliage that reminds many of hostas. The bulbs you will be lifting are offsets: new bulbs formed as part of the plant’s expansion. By the time the prima donna expires, there will be many of these understudies.
The best time to divide them is in early fall, after the foliage starts to die back. If you plant groups of graduated sizes in order to eventually have blooms every year, be sure to give each bulb enough room to expand.
Set the bulbs with tips right below the surface, in moist soil with lots of organic matter, in partial shade. Your current site must be close to ideal. Hardiness estimates vary, but most agree that survival is chancy north of Zone 7, where average lows do not go below zero.
Sources include Asiatica, asiaticanursery.com (Internet orders only), and Willow Creek Gardens, willowcreekgardens.com or (760) 721-7079.
Tall Grasses in Winter
Q. My ornamental grasses are beginning to look bedraggled. Will I do any harm to them if I cut them back?
A. Dead stems can trap snow, which helps protect plants from extreme cold and fluctuations in temperature. It is best to leave them in place for now on plants that are new or marginally hardy. Otherwise, removing dead material is simply a head start on one of the first tasks of spring.
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posted by Joe Paris @ Thursday, March 06, 2008
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