Hands-off may be best policy when gardening </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 10:06 PM on Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Hands-off may be best policy when gardening

Hands-off may be best policy when gardening
So there I was, in the bookstore looking at travel guides, and getting an earful on just how to make an amaryllis re-bloom.
Amaryllis annoy me to no end. Many is the bulb I have bought for the holiday season either to be disappointed by the color or the performance. When they are "right" they are ever so "right" and, yet when they are wrong .... . Then, there they sit for the rest of their lives with these huge strappy leaves flopping hither and yon, plus they need to be dusted (Dusted? Who ever wants to dust leaves?) .

Enter my friend with none of these worries about amaryllis. She has them blooming all over the place at this exact moment. They have been in the same pots since she pulled them out of the box four years ago. Never replaced the soil, never given them anything to eat, leaves them on the same window sill all year long, gives them a touch of water every couple of weeks if she thinks of it and there they are: blooming. She rotates them through the bookstore so the rest of us amaryllis challenged souls can enjoy them in their full splendor.
This just reinforces my dislike for the plant. No fair. I have completely given up on them.
But if you have some left over from the holidays and are wondering what to do with them, may I humbly suggest blatant neglect. Or the compost pile.
Another plant my same friend has success with, through neglect, is a miniature rose. It is 15 years old. Got that? Fifteen years old. In the same pot, never had new soil, goes dormant in the fall, just hangs out in a corner of the living room. Bam! It bursts into life with a million (perhaps a gazillion) lovely pink blooms. Yes, it does live outside in the summer. This year it experienced two freezes before she remembered to bring it inside.
The days are so much longer, the gardening urge is strong and the mind turns to our stored plants. Leave them alone. Wait until March. Just check to see if they need a little water, but do not bring them to light just yet. There is nothing sadder than a tuber begonia in full bloom parked outside on a blustery spring morning. A plant that has yet to bloom, maybe has buds, will experience a smoother transition from an inside window sill to spring in the Far North. Shoot for the first week in March to bring out your fuchsia, begonia tubers and dahlias. The only stored plants I have are tuber begonias. I have learned that there is really only so much time and I put my effort where my heart is. That does not mean that I don't enjoy fuchsia or dahlias or what ever else you have tucked away. All are so very lovely. But I know what works best for me and this garden.
In the fall I can let the begonias die back and either leave them in their pots or clean off all the dirt and tuck the naked tuber into a paper sack and leave them in the basement where neither they nor I have a care in the world. Come March, I either take the cleaned tuber from the sack or clean the ones that remained in their pots, and put them into pots with fresh soil, a good watering and the most light that I can find for them. They adore this little bit of attention. I know because I am rewarded with truly lovely blooms all summer long.
Last season I got brave and cut the tubers. They had gotten so large they no longer fit into the pots. I just used a sharp knife and cut them, let the cut surfaces dry of a day or two and potted them up like normal. They were lovely. And I had some to give away. If your s are looking huge, go ahead, get that knife.
Once they are up and running they will appreciate a protected spot. Mine thrive on the north side of the house, very much out of the wind but with sufficient sunlight. They greet one and all in the entry window box along with a few pansies and lobelia. They make my heart sing, and really, what else matters?
Hanging baskets irk me. As much as I like fuchsias with their variations on the pink and white theme, I can't figure out how to show them off to their advantage without going the basket route. To me, a hanging basket needs to be huge to offset the size of the building they are hanging from. Unless it is a playhouse, then they work. Its about scale.
But if you have stored plants, be thinking about getting them out and where you are going to put them while they break dormancy.
Geraniums might be even easier than tuber begonias. They can hang out as a raggedy house plant all winter. I'm sure you have some that are still blooming, in a moderate kind of way. Come March, cut them way back, using the cuttings to make more plants. Again, geraniums, like begonias don't like wind. Too cold turns their leaves red, too much sun burns them. But they are such a stalwart of the Alaska pioneer days. They are a homey plant and in this day and age we could all use a shot of homeyness.
Rosemary Fitzpatrick has been gardening with gusto in Homer for 30 years. This year marks the 19th anniversary of her column.