GARDEN
For glorious color and spectacular foliage: summer bulbs
By Elizabeth Licata
Those of you who are perfectly content with such dependable perennial stand-bys as daylilies, coneflower, monarda, phlox, and rudbeckia can stop reading here. Those plants love our Western New York conditions, and if you have them you can count on bright color all summer long. You’re all set.

If, however, you’re yearning for … more, think about exploring the lush and exotic world of summer bulbs. Tender bulbs and tubers such as dahlia, colocasia (elephant ear), canna, calla lily, and agapanthus need to be bought and planted within the next few weeks. At the end of the season you’ll need to bring them in and either store them or keep them growing in a bright, humid spot. Hardy lily bulbs can also be bought now, but they can stay in the ground, bringing beauty and fragrance for years to come.

I was first seduced by lilies (and I do mean lilium, not daylilies, which are hemerocallis, another plant family altogether) on my first Garden Walk in the summer of 2000. It seemed like almost every gardener on the Walk had the Stargazer or maybe Casa Blanca varieties, both with huge flamboyant blooms and sweet, startling fragrance, often apparent before you even got to the garden. “We have to have these,” I informed my husband, and he agreed. I wasn’t happy with Stargazers for long though. I discovered Martagon lilies, which offer nodding downward-facing blooms in June; other Oriental lilies that give different shades of pink, yellow, and red, and lighter scents; and finally the new Orienpet hybrids, which feature huge semitrumpet blooms and the longest lasting bloom period of all. Thankfully, local vendors have also discovered these varieties, so there’s no excuse to stop at Stargazers, especially if you’re after height.
SOURCES:
Brentandbeckysbulbs.com
Selectseeds.com
Plantdelights.com
Urban Roots, Mennes, Lockwoods,
and other local nurseries
Lilies are mainly spectacular for their huge blooms, but you’d be surprised by the power foliage can have. When I joined Garden Walk Buffalo myself in 2001, I was taken aback by how many visitors responded to my colocasia esculenta “Illustris,” which features near-black leaves with green veining and a reddish underside. These, other variegated types, and the more common green colocasia are easily found either in garden centers or via mail order and simply need to be put in a pot or the ground and given lots of water and quick-acting fertilizer. Miracle-Gro is perfectly fine; keep in mind that these are basically annuals and need a fast start and regular feeding to perform all summer long. I like them in pots; you can bring the pots inside and keep them going under lights, or you can let them dry out and store the tubers in sawdust or peat moss as you would cannas or dahlias. Or you can just compost the whole thing and buy new ones next summer. There is no shame in that, and it’s a heck of a lot easier.

Speaking of cannas and dahlias: cannas are superb for height, foliage, and bright (if smallish) flowers and dahlias are flower machines starting in July, under the right conditions. I must confess I do not save these, simply starting new ones each summer. I also, if I can, like to buy the cannas as plants for faster results.

And that’s the main message here: you’re not planting these to watch them slowly establish themselves over several seasons. You want fast continuous action starting in late June and continuing through October. You’ll get it too if you buy good bulbs or plants and give them plenty of what they need. Colocasia will take shade, while most of the other need sun. Don’t let lilies get too wet, but the others need regular moisture. You should even consider keeping colocasia and calla lilies in a pond.

If you’re reading this in late April, you have time to start some of these bulbs inside, in a sunny corner, but they’ll all do fine if started outside at the same time you plant annuals. Elephant ear is the plant that needs the warmest conditions, so wait longest on that one.

No matter what disasters occur in the rest of your garden, if you have plenty of summer bulbs, you’ll still get compliments. If you don’t believe me, come by my garden on Garden Walk. I won’t be able to talk to you; I’ll be too busy explaining to one and all which lilies and colocasia I have, where I get them, and what I do (very little) to keep them looking so great.

Elizabeth Licata is editor of Buffalo Spree.


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