pbs Digest, Vol 64, Issue 10

Adam Fikso adam14113@ameritech.net
Tue, 06 May 2008 17:11:14 PDT
 Thank you Jim Jones---you give me hope for A. ligtu, and  to Jim McKenney 
for the Latinate pune clarification and your continuing information which 
helps me grow stuff that I shouldn't even try here in the Chicago area. 
Colder than you, but it's helpful information.
   I'll off the top of my head mention stuff that is invasive, and nearly 
impossible to rid of (the geophytic ones).  An onion, native which  never 
blooms and probably is the one that Chicago is named for.  Small and spreads 
like dandelions. Scilla siberica, invasive and nice for a few weeks in early 
May, but  nearly immune to weedkillers that aren't Roundup.


The not nasty but otherwise reliable class .  Lily of the valley  (Will send 
a hunk of about 36 square inches to anybody who asks.  If you can't grow it 
it's probably beause you coddle it and water it or something.)  Not a bulb 
but maybe fits into a geophyte  class .?  Mertensia virginica.   Every year, 
it's there with the Convalarria

 Reliable "if you don't mess with them too much" class   All of the larger 
Narcissus hybrids; and daylilies; and ANY tulip I've tried, species or 
hybrid; Arisaema triphyllum, any form; . Arisaemas amurense, sikokianum and 
the Sikotak hybrid from Eco-Gardens in Georgia  ; Codonopsis lanceolata , 
good for 4 years running now  at the base of a corkscrew willow.   Yucca 
(of gardens about 6 feet high) in a spot that floods vernally for weeks at a 
time and has its seeds eaten  regularly by some kind of moth larva.  .   A 
not definitively identified variegated Polygonatum from a friend in 
Wisconsin, but the one that has a green opening to its bell and pictured on 
Dogpile Images., spreads nicely and hs beatifiul pink sprouts  when they 
first show out of the ground.    The trilliums luteum, and recurvatum are 
reliable and stay where I put them. . Haven't tried the others, but may do 
so.  Sanguinaria canadensis seems to do OK, but I'm losing one for as yet 
unknown reasons, but I'm guessing that it's gettign trampled by mating 
squirrels as it's been in their path for a few years.   Will move it to save 
it.   .

Most of the hybrid lilies do well if I can keep the squirrel away from them. 
They kill them by climbing them and break off their stalks about the time 
that they're beginning to look climbable., i.e., about a foot,.

Does Bleeding Heart count as a geophyte?  Both the newer smaller hybrid and 
the old species are reliable for me as are Tricyrtises.  Peonies are sort of 
a standby but don't like to have wet feet for more than a week.

I think this has been and may continue to be a good thread. We need to know 
what grows for us in various regions and soil and climate conditions.  I 
deliberately am trying grossly out-of-range things  and having a few 
moderate successes along with Jim Waddick, Jim Shields, Jim McKenney and 
probably a few experimenters.

Cheers, Everyone .  Adam  in the Chicago area, USDA Z5a 


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