On Wed, 14 May 2003 10:27:44 -0700, Radika Kesavan
wrote:

Hmmmm - new foliage in winter would be very helpful in placing the
Belladonnas, since it would coincide with the foliage of the
daffodils.

I roto-tilled a large expansion to the garden in the front yard
yesterday, but haven't started planting yet. When it's finally
complete, the shaded center of the full garden will be azaleas,
flanked by a hydrangea, three buddleias, and an old sweetgum tree.
One side (facing my front window) is becoming an arc of David Austin
roses (for now I have Heritage, Falstaff, Pat Austin, Ambridge, The
Squire) with hosta as a border. The other side will feature a
flowering pomengranate (already in place) along with select bourbon,
rugosa and shrub roses (Blanc Double de Coubert, Ballerina, Starry
Night, possibly Coquette des Blanches or Margaret Merrill) with
stella d'oro daylilies serving as the border.

I'm hoping to add plants with some winter appeal to scatter throughout
the mix. Daphne and helleborus are already on the list. The
Belladonna amaryllis sound like they'd be perfect too. Thanks for the
suggestion !





Wow - at first glance, I had registered them in my mind as daylilies,
but went back and looked them after reading this post. They are very
nice amaryllis, with a rather unusual delicacy of form. The foliage
looks healthy and you seem to have relocated them to thea much better
spot than under a pine tree and in full shade. Very pretty ... and
amaryllises are beautifully suited as companion plants for roses since
they do not appear to steal much water (there is that dreaded word
again, heh) from the roses. You might consider getting some Belladonna
Amaryllises if you had the room for them. They bloom in August through
September, straight out of the bare ground, no foliage or nothing. When
the blooming is finished, and as the fall rains start here - say in late
October to early November, the foliage begins to come out, and they
provide the winter landscape with beautiful greenery when all else look
dull and drab. Come early May, the foliage dies out and there is nothing
to be seen after you remove the dead foliage until August or September,
when suddenly the Enchantment Lilies aka Miracle Lilies aka Resurrection
Lilies aka Naked Ladies bloom. And they are gorgeous flowers, with heavy
scent, and the bloom form is much like any Amaryllis. They last a long
time in the ground or in the vase, and look really grand when combined
with roses in a vase. The kind I grow is medium pink with red stalks and
green foliage. He

http://www.bulbsandflowers.com/subCa...departmentID=1
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/...gardening/8598

So far nothing has attacked them or my daffodils. But I've had to
abandon all hope of ever growing tulips, and this year I've lost most
of my lilies (over 100 of them in about 15 varieties) to things that
go "munch" in the night. That has me nervous about planting the
gladiolus bulbs that I got last week. Maybe I'll just wait until fall
and plant helleborus instead.

You know, the trick it seems is to make any plant beloved of snails and
slugs survive the first year in the ground. If you can somehow
accomplish that, the marauders appear to leave them alone in the
subsequent years. May be the plant no longer offers them the taste they
like or something. I have managed to have dahlias, primroses and other
such snail delectations survive like this, but have not succeeded with
Hostas and Amayllises.

This may or may not be appropriate for where you live, but out here,
Sluggo appears to protect lots of plants. It is iron phosphate
appropriately flavoured to draw snails, and when it breaks down in the
soil, gives the plants the much needed iron and acidity in our alakaline
gardens where most of the iron in the soil is not available to plants
due to the alkalinity (or so I am told). It works well, and helps the
plants as a fertilizer as well from what I have seen.