SOS time again! Here is the pretty picture this Saturday. To see more SOS posts for a fascinating tour of what grows where in this world, visit Jim at http://gardenruminations.co.uk
Below is a Dwarf Red Ixora (Ixora taiwanensis) having a really good year.
It’s Saturday morning and after looking around my overgrown garden – I decided to make a confession. I have succumbed to the End of Season bulb sales. The dahlias and gladiolus were too cheap to resist, so I stocked up. The bulbs and tubers arrived in wonderful condition. Stored in dry peat moss and holey plastic bags.
In South Florida, the state of garden weirdness rules and I had to dither about storing the bulbs for a couple of months until I can plant them for winter cut flowers. I asked fellow bloggers about storage and dithered until the dahlias started sprouting. This spurred me into action. I cut the sprouts off, shook the peat moss off and laid the tubers out to dry. Then, decided on the Mousseau method (Chris at County Gardening) wrapped the tubers in cling wrap, rolled them into a paper bag and put them in the refrigerator.
These shall luxuriate in cool, dry air until October at least. I suppose I should have a look at them to make sure they aren’t molding. I could not cope with the idea of sprinkling fungicide on something and keeping it in the refrigerator.
Green Flash Parrot gladiolus joined the dahlias in the fridge. I marked them so my husband won’t eat them. Ha! The last instructions I read about growing glads in Florida was they needed to be coated in DDT to keep insects or everything away. Not happening here and crossing my fingers for future flowers.
All the bulbs made it necessary to reclaim a bed that has been lying fallow for a year due to root knot nematodes. The weeds must be removed and a layer of clear plastic put over the top of the dirt to solarize the bed and kill the nematodes.
Root knot nematode damage. This is a tomato plant that has passed on. You can see the thickened roots and knots on the roots. Nematodes infest the roots and feed on the nutrients, the plants come up, look great and slowly wither away. I have grown some really wimpy vegetable plants, not realizing what was happening. This plant was in a pot, these microscopic worms amaze me, they have gotten into pots set on pavers on my front porch while I wondered why I had the worst herbs ever! Solarizing that pot, too.
Of course, after the bulb and tuber event some new types of seeds were required. The Moonflowers were sent to me by a friend. I am going to try to grow these along with the Bougainvillea for scent this fall. I have not had Orlaya or Buplerum before and look forward to trying these as cutting flowers. I should have some mad green bouquets this winter. Hopefully with dahlias!
Happy Gardening!!!
The Shrub Queen 
Ooh good luck with all the bulb and seed planting. And thanks for including the nematode issue, it is good to know about these things.
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Thanks, Rosie. I hope the glads looks as good as yours! I think they are annuals here.
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Thanks, Rosie. I was fascinated to find there are good nematodes in the UK.
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A fabulous Ixora, it makes me very jealous. I loved that you have to label the gladiolus so that your husband won’t cook them. The Pianist complained yesterday that the chives weren’t doing very well and he could barely get the 2 tablespoonsful he needed for his recipe. He had chopped up the contents of a pot of Dierama, Angel’s Fishing Rod seedlings. Luckily, I caught him before he put them in the salad.
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Thanks, Liz. I had a few Larkspur in with the Rosemary once..and asked my husband to get some herbs. It was the last time I asked him to do that and the end of Larkspur near herbs.
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Great six! I learned a few things here today–thanks for sharing the knowledge. I have a flowerbed which I really should just totally dig up and “solarize” too. I just hate to give up on some of the lovely (yet, creeping bellflower-infested) flowers growing in that bed, so I procrastinate.
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Thank you. I understand the procrastination..
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Good luck for the coming cooler season, I’ll look forward to seeing their progress. 🙂
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Thanks, me, too! The experiment continues.
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Enjoyed reading your post Amy. I don’t recognize Buplerum so good luck with it. I want to see what it is! Delighted you decided to pass on using DDT on glads. It was a good year here for glads.
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Thanks, Susie. I was reading a blog about what you can grow in winter here for cutting and that came up. Of course, Liz had been growing it! I don’t think DDT is available, I hope so, anyway!
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The red ixora is really beautiful.
Good luck with all your bulbs. And I’m looking forward to seeing the success of the Chris method ( even if I couldn’t do it. No second fridge so no room )
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I was taking a gardening class and the speaker, who had a job in the industry, said he had nematodes and immediately decided to move.
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That nematode problem is scary! Glad to hear you labelled the things in the fridge – hope they all stay healthy until planting time. 😃
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It sounds like a a beautiful cutting garden is in the works! So different to hear about starting dahlias and glads as a fall planting, I bet they do great in the cool temps with no freeze threatening to end it early like they do here!
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Oh NO you di’n’t! Well, you are not the only one, although you are one of the few who admit to it. I know of someone who purchased a bunch of ‘Red King Humbert’ Canna last year, but got a bunch of something that is obviously something else, and is virused. Now there is a gift certificate that must be spent, likely on other cheap bulbs.
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