GROUND RULES
Peekaboo
Early bulbs tease in and out with varying temperatures. No need to worry: Fickle weather is their middle name. A lesson to us all, they grow as fast as they can when conditions are good and batten down during difficult times.
 Give liriope its yearly haircut this month, but use a light hand if you have bulbs nestled among its leaves. |
Species crocus (the fat Dutch boys come later) send up tender lavender blooms on the slightest chance and snowdrops droop their green tipped wings with the first warmish days of winter. Now is the time to make an inventory. Check out vanengelen.com and brentandbeckysbulbs.com, and mark your garden task calendar to tickle a late summer bulb order, so you can fill in the gaps that become apparent now.
| March in the garden Inventory bulbs Cut back liriope grasses Don’t over mulch |
If you’re lucky enough to have a fine dark mat of liriope sporting drifts of snowdrops, you have a narrow window to accomplish the annual haircut without damaging new growth while at the same time letting the little bulbs’ foliage ripen as long as possible. Oh, the dilemmas of the gardener. Fortunately, both plants are hearty and can withstand a little mauling.
Evidence to the contrary, there is no law that it can be used only to edge a walk in snaky ribbons or form decorative circles around trees. Use it in masses where its leaves can shimmer and move with the breezes. It adapts to a variety of tough situations: hot and dry, full sun or shade, though no bogs or marshes.
Do be careful to know whether you have running or clumping forms. Liriope spicata is an aggressive thug and will take over any space with invasive runners. Liriope muscari grows in mounds and plays nicely with others. “Big Blue,” one of the most ubiquitous forms, is not dependable and may revert to runners. Ask your garden center professional or nurseryman: piedmont-landscape.org.
Each March, cut away old growth to make way for new. This also applies to ornamental grasses (liriope is a member of the lily family) that have not already succumbed to the ravages of winter. Daffodils as well as minor bulbs make fine companions to the grasses, filling up bare spots that appear after spring shearing. As the grasses grow, they cover decaying bulb foliage.
Although one can never have enough bulbs, there is a definite tipping point for mulch. “We have become a nation of over-mulchers,” says Traci DiSabato-Aust, author of the indispensable reference, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden. No more than 2 or 3", especially with shredded hardwood, is necessary or desirable.
Fluff it up and spread it out instead of adding more, and keep it away from tree trunks and the crowns of shrubs and perennials. Too much attracts voles, compacts the soil, starves it of oxygen and sheds water. Do not make volcano mounds around the trees, but spread it out to the drip line and give those roots a good run.
The seeds sowed last month in the salad bowl have frozen a couple of times when I forgot to bring the pot in during the ice storms, but there’s a fine crop of arugula sprouts nonetheless. Their cuttings make a spicy green addition to pretty much everything. I have resolved to plant a good fall greens garden this coming August or September, as that seems to be the only reliable way to have them over winter, but perhaps the bowl will see us through ’til March sowings come up.—Cathy Clary
Garden questions? Ask Cathy Clary at garden@c-ville.com.
ON YOUR WINDOWSILL
Put your hands together
 Unusual activity enjoyed by the prayer plant: joining you in the shower. |
So-named for its habit of folding its leaves up at night, the show-stopping prayer plant (maranta leuconeura) blooms in late spring through early summer with small white and purple flowers. Maranta are slow growers, so re-potting is rarely necessary, and biannual trims are sufficient. Too much direct sunlight and they turn brown, curl up, and die. No question. High humidity is their other big requirement and daily spritzing is recommended, as is placing them among other plants, or putting a bowl of water close by. Some even suggest taking prayer plants into the shower with you every once in a while. They also need slightly acidic soil, so treat with equal analysis acid fertilizer or add a little peat moss.—Lily Robertson