As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


October Gardening Tips

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If you live in a cool climate here are a few things that you should do for your garden this month:

  • Plant scattered clusters of early flowering bulbs, such as crocus, throughout your lawn in order to achieve a more-relaxed, “natural” look, but, don’t mow the area until the foliage dies the next summer.
  • Clean up the area around your perennial flowers, such as rose and peony. If left on the ground, leaves and stems can harbor diseases and provide convenient places for pests to spend the winter.
  • Ferns can be planted or transplanted in fall.
  • Wear gloves when handling hyacinth bulbs as they have an oil in the bulb that may make some people itch. Also remember to wash your hands with cool water and soap immediately after planting.
  • Cut stems and foliage of herbaceous perennials when the leaves begin to brown.
  • Occasionally some spring-flowering bulbs to send up a few leaves in the late fall or early winter. The bulbs will remain safe over the winter and will still produce flowers next spring.
  • If cannas, dahlias, and gladioli are not hardy in your area, bring them inside after the tops are browned by frost. Allow to dry, clean off soil, and store in peat moss or vermiculite in a cool location free from frost.
  • Move and divide crowded perennials. Give some to your friends and neighbors if you have too many!
  • Let a few of the seeds of your favorite delphinium and hollyhock ripen on their stalks. When they mature, you can plant the seeds in a garden bed where they will grow into little plants that survive the winter well.
  • Add mulch to your garden beds. A 1-inch layer of chopped leaves or weed-free straw will help conserve soil moisture, protect the root system, and reduce plant loss by soil heaving during the winter.
  • lily bulbs are never dormant, you must plant them as soon as they are purchased. Prepare your beds ahead of time.
  • Mark the spots where late starting perennials will come up next spring as you clean out the flower beds, so that you can avoid damaging them while working in the beds next year.





Do you need Free business cards

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I was talking about starting up a very small gardening business next spring in an earlier post. I’ve been thinking about starting a number of seedlings for some of the more specialized plants that I grow in my gardens and then selling the surplus online through mail order.

It might be a good idea to create some business cards for this venture. I remember when I had my own jewelry trade business. The first business cards I had printed up were very nice but very expensive. My company name was “Gold Cuts” and the cards had the name of my company in gold on a very light beige card paper.

I came across a site earlier today that does free business cards, and not only can you get free business cards through this online company but you can learn how to design your own cards and read articles about the make up of a good business card such as what should be on the card, should you print your own cards and so on.

If you have your own company, small business or even just a website you might want to get some free business cards made up too. I used to have some business cards for my big “reptile” website. It made it so much easier to give contact information out when I met new people that wanted to pick my brain about reptile care. I could just hand them my card and say get a coffee or two and read the whole site – then contact me if you have more questions.

What is a bulb anyway?

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Bulb, Corm, tuber, Rhizome! What does it all mean?

The term “bulb” is commonly used to refer to the thickened underground storage organ produced by some plants. However, many of what we call bulbs may be corms, tubers, tuberous roots or rhizomes.

You might think of a bulb as you would a chicken egg. The outside of a “true bulb” is a compressed stem (basal plate) bearing a growing point or flower bud and enclosed by thick, fleshy scales called bulb scales. Much like the egg’s shell protects the growing chick enclosed inside the egg.

Some true bulbs such as narcissus, amaryllis and tulip are protected from drying and mechanical injury by dry and membranous outer scales called a tunic. Other true bulbs such as lilies are called non-truncate or scaly because their outer scales are succulent and separate, giving the bulb a scaly appearance.

A corm is a solid mass of stem tissue with a basal plate on the bottom and a terminal shoot bud on top. In addition to the terminal shoot bud, axillary or lateral buds are produced at each of the nodes along the sides of the corm. In the event that the terminal bud should be injured or otherwise prevented from growing, these lateral buds are capable of producing a shoot. The solid stem structure of the corm is protected against injury and water loss by dry leaf bases that are similar to the tunic that enclose true bulbs. Gladiolus and watsonia are typical cormous plants.

Tubers such as caladium and gloriosa are thickened underground stems with many buds (eyes) present in regular order over their surfaces. Unlike true bulbs and corms which are covered with dried leaves or scales, tubers are covered with a tough skin. Tuberous roots such as dahlia and ranunculus are true roots and lack nodes and internodes. Buds are present only at the crown or stem end of the root.

Rhizomes are thickened horizontal stems growing along or below the surface of the ground. Underground rhizomes such as canna and calla produce roots on their lower surface and send shoots above ground.

The term bulb will probably always be used when referring to plants that produce underground storage organs.

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