Re: tuberoses

Well, my favourites tend to be the early bulbs.  At the moment some of my less common bulbs in flower are ipheon "rolf fiedler" and ipheon "froyle mill", that's a sky-blue and a purply-blue.  Five or six varieties of  lachenalia are in bud, (interesting blotched leaves and stripey tubular bells), and the moscari moscarimia have been out for a couple of weeks..  Most of my stuff stays in the ground  in hot dry soil in summer and has a wettish non-freezing winter, although this year has been exceptionally wet and cold in Southern Greece.
My favourite  of all is Sprekelia formosissima. The dog has pruned my tuberoses, a great success last year, though.
 
 I get all my bulbs from Lauw de Jager, who is sure to tell you exactly what will succeed and where.
Yvonne
(cold today, 11C)
----- Original Message -----
From: p*@email.msn.com
To: m*@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2002 8:00 AM
Subject: tuberoses

Today the weather was lovely and warm here in the lower Sierra foothills, so I decided to move one clump of tuberoses from where they were not getting enough late summer sun to bloom over by some others which have repeated bloom for me (this despite warnings that it probably would not.)  Anyway, I noticed that those that had bloomed had also pushed themselves to the surface the way bearded irises do.  Does anyone who grows these know if this is normal, or is it because of my heavy soil underneath, and the lightweight mulch on the top?  Do I dig them and replant them deeper to keep them from drying out in our relentless summer heat, or let things be?    
 
I would also be interested in folks' favorite bulbs.  I've given up on any more large plants in our dreadful soil, but I can always dig a hole big enough for a bulb.
I would love to hear favorite bloomers from each season and particularly by site suitability: dry sun, moist sun, dry shade, moist shade.  In particular, I have a bed that is in shade from late fall to early spring, faces north and stays moist most of the time due to heavy soil, few daylight hours and mulch.  It contains four beautiful old camellias ranging in height from 7-12ft.  Because the bed was originally covered with black plastic and two inches of rock, and of course the nature of these shrubs, their extensive roots are very near the surface.  There are a few other things in the bed, but would be interested to hear suggestions for bulbs that could take all that shade as well as morning to 2pm summer sun; the all shady parts are all planted.
 
I also have some dry shade under two old flowering pears that has a similar root problem, but would love to tuck three seasons of color under the canopy.  Any suggestions, bulb lovers?  I currently have  only daffs and bearded iris(on the sunny edge).            Cheers, Karrie Reid
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