TOW N.H.Do in April - Garden
Diane Whitehead (Tue, 30 Mar 2004 23:18:58 PST)

In general, but also for Pacific Northwest North America and Western Europe -

ENJOY
April is the month to enjoy the flowers of those bulbs you planted last fall.

PICK
If the colour of your tulips clashes with the colour of flowering
shrubs, pick them fast and put them in the house. Let's not offend
sensitive passersby.

PROP
If you want to collect the seed of your early flowering bulbs, like
snowdrops and scillas, for your own use or to donate to seed
exchanges, now is the time to prop them up as the weight of the
developing seed causes the stem to bend and deposit the seedpod on
the ground. Once they're down, they are out of sight and forgotten,
and the seed doesn't get collected. I use bamboo skewers (sold for
making shishkebab) and a couple of wire twisties to hold the stems
upright.

FERTILIZE
Fertilize any bulbs that still have green leaves with something like
6-10-10 as they are storing nutrients for next year. Crocus and
other corms must replace the corm each year.

BUY
The garden centres are full of packages of summer bulbs with glorious
colour photos. In the interests of research, I went to a local one
today, with a pencil and notebook. Somehow I emerged with nothing
written down, but a box full of bulb packages.

PLANT
Dahlia cuttings can be rooted if tubers were started indoors earlier.
They can be started indoors now and planted out when in growth, or
planted directly outside when the weather and soil are warm.

Summer flowering bulbs can be planted. It's a good idea to stagger
the times of planting so you will have flowers over a longer season.
Anemone coronaria, callas, crocosmia, gladiolus, ranunculus, tigridia.

Northern California (and southern Europe?) - In addition to the
above, canna and dahlias can be planted.

Southern California, low desert through to Texas (and Mediterranean?)
- In addition to the above, Caladium, Canna and Crinum can be planted
when the soil has warmed to 18 C (65 F).

Rocky Mountain areas - start begonias, caladiums, callas, cannas,
dahlias, gladiolus in pots on a sunny windowsill to plant out after
all danger of frost is past.