Dear Helen: Every autumn, I plant several dozen daffodil bulbs on my balcony, but I have no place to store them after the flowering is done. My practice has been to give them away and buy new ones in the fall, but by now all my friends have had enough and I hate to throw the bulbs away. Can you suggest any places where they would be welcomed? I live in Sidney.
J.C.
Perhaps some local public park gardeners would like to plant them. Some nursing homes and extended-care facilities have volunteer gardener groups that might like to plant the bulbs. Try the municipality, too. They might like them for public spaces. Use the phone book to make a few such contacts.
Your situation must be common among apartment- dwelling gardeners who plant spring-flowering bulbs. I’ll include your question in a column. Perhaps some person or group eager to take your bulbs will surface.
Dear Helen: A small-growing rhododendron that I planted beside a larger evergreen shrub years ago has become diminished by the expanded companion shrub. Can you think of a way to revive it?
S.B.
You could move it, with as large a root ball intact as possible, into a location where it won’t be exposed to the crowding it has in the current site. Or, you could rehabilitate it in place, as I did with a small rhododendron called Shamrock in similar conditions. It had become spindly and bare as a camellia beside it expanded outward and upward.
Two years ago, I began trimming the camellia back after it flowered. I pruned away the lowest branches, cut back the longest stems and lowered the plant’s height. At the same time, I removed dead and spindly growth on the little rhododendron, and treated the soil to fertilizer, a scattering of Epsom salts, and a mulch layer of compost.
The result this spring has been a nicely rounded camellia more full of flowers than it has ever been, and a little Shamrock plant with its first trusses of yellow-green bloom in many years.
Dear Helen: In the fall, we planted good-quality tulip bulbs that promised large spring flowers. By late March, they had grown only a few inches high, with tiny flower buds already formed. What went wrong?
E.A.
If the foliage and buds look otherwise healthy, the odd growth pattern could be attributed to some issue with the bulbs themselves, or possibly to the weather this late winter and early spring. I’ve noticed peculiarities among my tulips planted last fall. Some of the later-flowering ones developed before certain early-flowering varieties. If the issue is weather-related, growth and flowering should normalize given a little time.
Another cause could be an imbalance of nutrients in the soil. Over-use of a fertilizer high in phosphorus and potassium (the second and third numbers on fertilizer labels) could promote stunted growth. Phosphorus promotes good rooting and flower bud formation. Potassium hardens plant cells and can restrict green growth if not balanced well in the soil with nitrogen (the first number of the three on labels). Nitrogen fosters green growth in plants.
GARDEN EVENTS
Rose meeting. The Mid Island Rose Society will meet on Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. in the meeting room of the Nanaimo North Library across from Green Thumb Nursery on Hammond Bay Road in Nanaimo.
Alpine show and sale. The Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine Garden Society is hosting its annual Spring Show and Sale on Friday, 1 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Cadboro Bay United Church, 2625 Arbutus Rd. This show features beautiful and intriguing rock and alpine garden plants on display as well as commercial and member plant sales, seed sales, door prizes and a tea room with sweets and savouries. The sale of plants donated by members begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Cairnsmore plant sale. The Cairnsmore Place Volunteer Gardeners group is holding its annual plant sale on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 250 Cairnsmore St. in Duncan.
Plant sale. The Mid Island Rose Society is holding its spring plant sale of annuals and perennials on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3879 Uplands in Nanaimo. Proceeds go to local charities.
