Van Dycks

I've always loved reading mysteries. Sometimes I can predict how all the various plot twists will resolve themselves, but the best ones continue to surprise me right up to the final showdown. In a way, gardening is a lot like reading a good mystery story. You do your best to choose plants that will work well together in your climate and soil and use good planting and garden maintenance techniques and then… You just have to wait to see whether it all will work. Certainly, with Mother Nature blowing hot and cold, you can never know exactly how your garden will turn out. You can do everything right, but if a "storm of the century" comes along or your area is stuck in a rain or drought pattern for several weeks or months, you may not get the results you were expecting, especially if your garden is regularly visited by cats, dogs, rabbits, deer and other unwanted guests. But does that stop us? No, indeed. No matter what happens, most of our results are good, so we keep rearranging our existing plants and/or starting new garden beds, planning new containers, planting new veggie plots, etc. each year. We can't wait to see how our garden mysteries will turn out.

Now, as we move out of wintry winds (and worse) towards the balmy breezes of spring, a common mystery that puzzles many of us comes to light, probably on a shelf in the garage or in a bag under the kitchen sink: It's, uh, oh! What's this bag of tulip and daffodil bulbs doing here?

I've done it and I bet you have too. I was planning to plant those bulbs just as soon as I got home, but the phone rang, the kids were hungry, the dog needed to be walked, etc., etc., and the bulbs never got planted. Now that winter is soon to be just a memory, do you just throw those unplanted bulbs away? Well, maybe, but only if they've turned to mush. A little bit of mold is probably okay, but toss the ones that are completely soft.

As soon as the weather cooperates (i.e., the ground is thawed enough to dig and it's not too waterlogged) head outside and plant the daffodils in the ground where you had planned to plant them last fall. Daffodils are perennials. Though they won't have had the chilling period they prefer (unless they were in an unheated garage and not under your kitchen sink), they will probably put forth leaves this spring. They may not bloom this year – though they might surprise you – but if they put up leaves this spring, they will probably come back next spring (2007) and bloom normally. You can help them along by giving them a boost of bulb food and allowing the leaves to fully ripen (don't cut them off until they turn yellow).

Daffodils are amazing. They are rarely deterred by snow, whether they push up through it or a snowfall comes after they have already bloomed. You may notice that the snow melts faster around your daffodils, probably because they are working so hard to bloom that they give off energy as heat. Whether you have the huge and hardy yellow trumpet daffodil, Narcissus 'Dutch Master'; my namesake, the award-winning N. The Bulb Lady'; or the tiny but adorable N. 'Tete-a-Tete', you'll never have to worry about whether they will perform. It's best to divide the clumps after a few years when they begin to look crowded. They are hardy in zones 3-8.

Tulips are a different kettle of fish. Most tulips are not reliably perennial, especially in areas with long, cold winters and a lot of rainfall during the year. There are some tulips that are more perennial than others, however, and it's fun to experiment to see which ones do best in your area. As a general rule, you will have better luck with species tulips such as Tulipa violacca 'Pallida', bouquet tulips like T. gregii 'Toronto' or the Darwin Hybrids that bloom in mid-season. Most tulips are hardy in zones 3-7.

But those tulip bulbs you've just found in the garage or under the sink probably won't be winning any awards. Without a cooling period of about three months, they may not bloom at all, but that's no reason not to try them. Just plant them in containers, rather than going to all the trouble of planting them in the ground. That way if they don't perform, you didn't waste much effort and if, despite all odds, they should happen to bloom, you can take a bow! Nobody needs to know that the bulbs were just laying around until this week.

Seriously though, potting them up in a container will give them the best possible shot at living up to the beautiful pictures in the catalogs that made you buy them in the first place. Use a container that is deep enough for you to plant them at the recommended depth (about three times the height of the bulb) and that has good drainage. Set the container outside where it will get sunlight and rain and cross your fingers. If nothing happens, at least you tried. But, ahhh, the mystery. You may be delighted with the results.

Gardening is full of such mysteries. Have you ever bought a bare-root plant? Many mail order nurseries sell perennials only, or at least predominantly, as bare-root plants. There are several advantages to this, for both the nurseries and for you, the purchaser. For one thing, you usually receive a larger plant for your money. The nursery packs and ships the plant while it is dormant, saving the costs of growing the plants until they are leafed out and ready to bloom (heat, lights, fertilizer, sterile soil, etc.) and ultimately, shipping the plants with (heavy) damp soil.

So what should you expect when you order and receive bare-root plants? When you open the box, you may think you've just paid good money for a box of dried sticks and tangled brown roots! But, never fear, those sticks and roots will soon be transformed into thriving plants.

If you are able to plant them right away, just remove the plastic bags and other packing materials, re-hydrate the plants by soaking them for several hours and plant them according to your garden design. If you are unable to plant them immediately (i.e., they came on a Monday and you can't plant them until the weekend), loosen the packing materials, check to make sure everything you ordered has arrived safely, moisten the roots it they have dried out, pack them up again and store the box in a cool, dark area until you are ready to proceed. Sometimes it will be several weeks before you can plant them in their permanent garden area. In that case, it is best to dig a shallow trench out of direct sun and lay the plants on the ground so that their roots are in the trench. Lightly cover the roots with soil. This is called "heeling in". Keep the soil moist and the plants can stay like that for several weeks or until you have time to plant then where you want them.

When you're ready, check the plant label to make sure the site you've chosen matches its cultural needs. Then loosen the soil in the area to a depth of at least 10-12 inches and dig in compost and other amendments to improve drainage and add nutrients. Now you're ready to plant. Dig a hole that is 1-1/2 times as deep and wide as the plant's roots and form a firm mound of soil in the middle of the hole. Spread the roots as evenly as possible over the mound and make sure the crown (where the stem joins the roots) is at soil level, or just below. Because your eyes can play tricks on you, it's helpful to use a yardstick laid across the hole to get the height just right. Gently back-fill the hole, cover the top with ½ inch of soil, tamp it down and water well. There's no need to add mulch until top growth emerges. Then add a layer of no more than 1-2 inches thick and keep the soil consistently moist all season.

Because most nurseries sell only what they call "top size" or "#1 size" bare root plants that have been growing for at least a year in the ground or in a greenhouse, they will quickly establish themselves in your garden. As an added bonus, there's no transplanting shock, which is common when moving a container-grown plant into a garden bed. Plants are shipped while dormant; nursery workers wash off their soil and pack them carefully and ship them at the right time for planting in your area. Depending on where you live, that could be as early as February or as late as May. Some examples of bare root perennial plants are: columbines, Aquilegia 'McKana' hybrids; English lavender, Lavandula 'Hidcote'; and hardy geraniums. Other plants, such as iris, are shipped as rhizomes, underground or partially underground stems that produce roots, shoots and leaves. Some plants are shipped with one or two "eyes", which are actually growing points on the roots. Examples of these are hosta; peonies Paeonia officinalis; and astilbes. All of these are shipped bare root – without soil – and are timed as closely as possible to arrive at just the right time for them to wake up and grow. All they need is a little help from you to get them started.

It so nice to be needed, and more importantly, these mysteries can be easily solved. Can't you just smell spring coming? It's almost here...