Did you hear the last one? October has a new nickname – Hotober. Fits perfectly. With high temperatures continuing to set records, October has certainly been an unprecedented month.
Being able to enjoy outdoor activities later in the fall was a bonus but also a concern. The extreme conditions of drought and risk of fire are indeed disastrous.
The drought hasn’t been good for our gardens either, especially in light of the extended watering restrictions, but there are still a few surprises.
A walk through our garden reveals roses still in bloom, sweet pea flowers divine, the blue of Aconitum carmichaelii ‘Arendsii’ (Aconite) flowers richer than ever and my geranium ‘Ann Folkard’ is still covered in bloom with new buds coming soon!
Not to go unnoticed, the plants in my new tiered garden – Heliopsis helianthoides ‘Bleeding Heart’ (Perennial Sunflower), Rudbeckia hirta ‘Cherry Brandy’ and ‘Autumn Colours’ (Black-eyed Susan), Chelone lyonia ‘Tiny Tortuga ‘ (dwarf tortoise) and Agastache ‘Mango Tango’ (anise hyssop) – still have masses of flowers.
But I must admit that the queen of the bunk beds has to be my Cannova x generalis ‘Bronze Orange’. About 1.2m (four feet) tall, the showy deep orange flowers rising on branching stems above the dark bronze-colored foliage add a tropical flair to this garden. Glad I didn’t listen to my inner warning as I was considering not buying this lovely new addition to the canna lily range. The reason for the hesitation was that the cannas are not winter hardy in our garden. Like dahlias, canna tubers should be overwintered indoors.
A few years ago we had quite a few tender perennials in our garden… cannas, lots of dahlias, brugmansias, a slew of scented and zonal pelargoniums, a few begonias and an ultra-lemony lemon verbena. It finally got to the point that the extra work of getting all those tender plants ready for winter storage and trying to find suitable storage space indoors was getting too much. We basically switched to other less demanding plant species for our growing area. Or so I thought.
We kept a limit plant in the garden… the pineapple lily, Eucomis comosa. Then we added Eucomis bicolor ‘Sparkling Burgundy’, the species with dark foliage. A few years later, I came across the dwarf pineapple lily, ‘Leia’, which is part of the Aloha series. I was hooked. The dependency was back and a few more eucomis, a begonia and some zonal pelargoniums were added to the collection. And then the new canna this year, as I said.
Now I’m waiting for a light frost to hit our garden. We are closing in as we slipped 2.5C overnight on a clear night. Once the leaves of the canna plant begin to fade from a light frost, I will dig it up, cut the foliage about five centimeters (two inches), clean the soil from the tuber, air dry it. out of direct sunlight for five to seven days and store in shavings of pet litter in a container or paper bag.
I will do the same with my pineapple lily of the valley bulbs but let the foliage dry out naturally on the bulb and then remove it. Once the bulbs have dried out a bit, I rub them gently with my hands to remove excess dirt. They are placed in shavings in their own labeled containers so as not to confuse the bulbs. Eucomis and cannas should be stored at 10 C (50 F) and checked periodically for possible decay.
Guess I can handle the extra work for the sake of their exotic blooms next summer.
Leslie Cox is co-owner of Growing Concern Cottage Garden in Black Creek. His website is at www.duchessofdirt.ca
Comox Valleygardening
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