October 11, 2016 - Surprises in the Fall Garden

          We’ve had rain here due to Hurricane Matthew coming up the coast.  It was much needed rain; we didn’t get too much wind – but enough to blow down some dead limbs along our back property line.

          This year the kudzu has again run amok along the back property line. But, in the cool of the morning I decided to check out the area where the fall cyclamen should be hoping they were in bloom.

There they were, like clockwork, always a delightful fall surprise for me.  They are delicate little things on the forest floor.  I have a small patch and find the mottled heart shaped leaves dance over the detritus of the hardwoods. The blooms look like pink birds in flight. 

          The first year we moved to this house I planted fall blooming cyclamens that I ordered some from Terra Ceia Farms. 

          They bloom in the fall. I first fell in love with gorgeous Florist Cyclamens when my husband and I were first dating and it took me years of gardening before I discovered there were outdoor, fall flowering cyclamens for the south.  Cyclamen hederifolium and Cyclamen neapolitanum are the two I have tried here at this residence.

          The leaves come first in late summer or early fall, then later the flowers.  The flowers turn into seed capsules as shown in the picture above and the leaves last into late winter and spring and go dormant in summer.  I do find it disconcerting that the leaves go dormant in summer and I believe I have ruined many of my plantings because I forget where I have them planted. Above to the left are the interesting seed pods – on springs.

         

The other surprise is the fall flowering Colchium ‘waterlily’ which is pictured above. Years ago I had these at my first house in Forest City and they bloomed the last week in September at the time of my birthday.

When I spotted these Colchium ‘waterlily’ in the bulb catalog I went wild.  I am a fortunate person as my birthday landed on my parent’s wedding anniversary.

When I was a kid I told one of my grade school teachers I was born on my mother’s wedding day.  Of course the teacher knew I must be mistaken and sent home a note to my parents.   Needless to say, I was “corrected” – not the wedding day – the anniversary of the wedding day.  Even as a child I made serious faux pas.

I always sent an anniversary card – for their special day – and sometimes I would rustle up something as a gift.  When my parents were both retired I turned to gardening things and I thought the perfect gift one year would be some “fall flowering crocus” that would bloom to celebrate their wedding anniversary.  Seemed perfect to me and so I ordered some for both of us one year from White Flower Farms.   

When they arrived in the mail, Dad phoned me.  He was dubious about them as he had never heard of them before. I assured him to plant them somewhere you can easily see them in the fall as they were supposed to bloom sometime near their anniversary. He quipped that I should have come home to plant them for him as part of the gift; but I was a plane trip away.  We laughed at that. This was back around 1990 or so.

Dad and I compared notes in the spring when the leaves came up.  Then the leaves died down in early summer.

When mine started to bloom that fall, I called Mom.  I didn’t even have to ask.  She said, “It’s our anniversary and the ‘waterlilies’ are blooming.  What perfect timing.”   I mentally said to myself, ‘I love it when a plan comes together’.  It worked! My plan was that they would have an anniversary gift every year for several years. 

Every year for many years I would call Mom and she would report on the ‘waterlilies’ flowering.

My mother is elderly now and is being cared for at my brother’s home and this fall I remembered the fall flowering crocus.  I badgered my brother to go check on them and to dig them up and carry a pot to mom for her to see.   He said, “They won’t be there – I cut that garden to the ground this summer I was sick of mowing around it.”

 Again I badgered him and said, “They will be there – Daddy had the best soil; they came back year after year.  I saw the thick succulent leaves couple years ago when I visited for Mom’s birthday.”

He finally got around to it and he was surprised – they were blooming.  I told him to dig them up and take some to his house – as they were “pricey” bulbs.  He didn’t know the history of them, but he does now.  And, I hounded him to send me some.  He said there were a lot of them and he asked how many they started with.  I said – probably 3 or 6 – they were expensive back then.  He told me there were lots of them now.  I asked if he could send me some.

Yesterday I got a box in the mail.  The bulbs were all trimmed and packed in sawdust. A perfect packing job I must say.  When we talked by phone that day I told him the package had arrived.  My brother mentioned the number he had sent me.  That rang a bell – same number as the day on the calendar for my birthday – AHH, how sweet to send me the same number in bulbs.  That was a special touch!

Today I shook them out of the sawdust and laid them out on a tray.  I walked around the yard looking for a few places to plant them.  I don’t dare put them all in the same place.  Once they are planted this fall – next year I will have a delightful time waiting for my birthday blooms once again. 

And next year, when mine start to bloom, I will call Ken and see if his are in bloom.  The tradition of the ‘waterlilies” will live on once more.

Terra Ceia Farms. https://www.terraceiafarms.com/

White Flower Farms:  Colchium: http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/bulbs.html