Bulbs for your own climate

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:05:50 PDT
Hi,

One of the interesting things about this list has been learning about bulbs 
I can and cannot grow. I agree that sometimes it is worth trying something 
you don't think would be possible and finding you can grow it. I've also 
found that some things that I'd think would be a cinch haven't been. Some 
of the bulbs that come from climates unlike mine that grow and bloom in 
summer I've had short term success growing, but over time they have faded 
away. It seems far more rewarding to concentrate on the things that are not 
so difficult and like Diane suggested grow different forms of them.

During the two plus years we had the topic of the week, we had discussions 
of regional favorites. I couldn't get people from some of the different 
regions to introduce and help so we didn't cover all the possible areas. 
But for those people who are interested below are some links to the 
archives to check out. Look at responses to the introduction as well as 
other people chimed in with what worked for them. For some strange reason 
it looks like a lot of the messages in the archives are listed twice.

Before my listing  of the regional favorites below I thought I'd ask this 
earlier in my message in case everyone doesn't read to the end:
When we were doing the topic of the week we had some interesting 
contributions when we profiled people's favorite bulbs by color. Any 
interest in starting a topic where everyone who wants to participate lists 
where they live and ten bulbs (down to the species level at least)  that 
are planted in the ground that come back year after year with little to no 
care? I think it would be a fascinating topic and it would also be 
interesting to keep a running tally to see if there were bulbs that made it 
on a number of lists. I'm sure a lot of people would have more than ten, 
but then you could pick the ten you liked the most.

January 2003 - Bulbs for Pacific Northwest Gardens--
Ernie O'Byrne Introduction
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…

March 2003 - Bulbs for Mediterranean Gardens
I started this out with this post:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…
but you can find the others listed under Bulbs for ..
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…
Not all areas considered Mediterranean are the same with a great variation 
in temperatures summer and winter and amounts of rainfall and even to some 
degree when it rains.

April 2003 Growing tender bulbs in cold climates
Introduction from Mark Mazer
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…

Bulbs for Continental Climates, Upper Midwest
Introduction from Boyce Tankersley
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…

June 2003
Bulbs for Texas
Introduction from Cynthia Mueller
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…

We stopped at that point which was disappointing since I'm sure there were 
a lot of other areas that could have been profiled and weren't. Nancy might 
find reading the posts on bulbs for the Pacific Northwest interesting.


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