Re: Why can't I grow Lily of the Valley?

At 12:57 PM 1999/04/30 EDT, Paul wrote:
>Do you remember the type of Liliy-of-the-valley you got.
>The giant form spreads less speedily.
>The common form for me increases very fast in all my soils, dry, moist, 
>shade, part shade.  It does best in moist light sun.

See! I didn't know that there was more than one type.  Mine have leaves
about 5 inches long. They look like any other Lily of the Valley that I've
seen.  Let's assume that they are the common form.  I guess that means that
they need more sun.  Makes sense. The nicest patches that I've seen were
growing under trees where they get filtered sun.


>What makes me concerned is that the Hosta you planted did not make it.
>It is not easy to kill a Hosta, the LAMIUM do not always take to an area.
 
A couple of people mentioned that they found it interesting that I couldn't
grow hosta.  I thought that some detail might be in order.

First, I forgot the mention that this area is a raised bed.  (That may be
important) We built it in late spring, 1995.  By the time we had it
finished there wasn't much to chose from in the garden centre except hosta.
 I planted 2 Frances Williams.  (They are listed as hardy to zone 3.)  They
seemed quite happy throughout the summer but the winter of 1995/96 was
majorly cold.  

There was a period of over 3 weeks where the daytime high didn't go above
-20C and the low was never above -30C.  There were several days when the
high/low wasn't even above -30/-40.  (Sorry for the C. temps.  I'm writing
in a hurry and am too lazy to convert to F.  Suffice to say that -20C. is
really cold.)  

These conditions are more like zone 2 than zone 3.  That and being in a
raised bed may have been what did in the hosta.  I really should give it
another try but this time with a variety that is hardy to zone 2.

>The LAMIUM like evenly moist but not wet soils with some filtered sun 
>during the day.

I didn't know that.  The soil was ok but the shade would have been to deep.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.


Leslie
zone 3 southern Manitoba

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