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overwintering glads
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Posted by KristenMarie Z4-5/New Mexico (My Page) on Fri, Sep 16, 05 at 10:37
| Hi guys, I'm curious about something (I can't even attempt it this year, but I want the information to store in the back dusty files of my brain) -- I read in one post on here (was it you annie?) about glads that overwintered in z 4-5... is this actually something I could attempt large-scale? I had some volunteer glads this year coming up in last year's glad bed, and -- since I wasn't intending to attempt to overwinter anything -- I hadn't done anything at all to protect them (no mulch, nothing). I'm wondering, if I put a foot of mulch on the glad bed in October, do you suppose I could overwinter ALL of them????
I'm also thinking it's worth a try because I know 2 years ago I stored my corms in an area that got too cold when we went out of town for 2 weeks at christmas-- they were frozen solid when I got back, and yet they all came back and bloomed.
Imagine the work saved! Imagine the jump start on the glad season! Imagine the storage space saved! (I have about 3,000 corms right now)
Kristen |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: overwintering glads
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| A lot of home gardeners around here leave their glads in the ground. Some winters, they lose them, in other winters, they don't. It's a calculated risk. Probably worth trying, especially if you'll put mulch on. It would be a slightly better risk if you get consistent snow cover, as we do most years. I was planning to try leaving a few hundred corms in the ground this year, but am pulling out of that gardening area altogether, so I'm going to try to dig them all up after all. By the way, a few of my glads had inexplicably twisted and curled stems this year. No pattern, just a few here and there. One is almost a figure 8. Imagine a figure 8 on its side, perched on top of a stem, and you'll get the idea. They seem otherwise healthy, so I don't know what's going on. Jeanne |
RE: overwintering glads
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I also had a few come up that were left in the ground by mistake, but they were smaller flowers and not as long a spike as my others. It sounds very tempting as a time and labor saver, I hate digging glads up. One year I left them in my own flower bed, never to be seen again. I'm sure mulch would be helpful. Maybe leaving half or less for an experiment would be better. If it works, at least you wouldn't have as many to put in next spring. Do you sell them to a florist? That's a lot of glads!
Cheryl |
RE: overwintering glads
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Kristen,
I've had some come up each year without mulch. I bet if I had fertilized them (I don't since I usually think of them as annuals) they would have bigger blooms. Some even came up this year after the ground had been cultivated over top of them. I can't mulch due to excessive mole/vole problems. They love to snuggle in the mulch in the cold weather, and eat everything near them, completely destroying strawberries one year, so I don't even mulch the berries now. Ann |
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