MARGARET AND I TALK ABOUT DIVIDING PLANTS

What was the first plant I remember dividing? I’m not really sure, but this does remind me of a discovery I made about European wild ginger. I bought a gallon pot of Asarum europaeum and planted it in the Brooklyn shade garden. For several years, the clump expanded slightly but did not spread. I decided to dig it up and try to divide it. I shook off the soil and pried apart sections of rhizomes with leaves and roots and transplanted them. In two years, each piece grew as large as the original plant. What once was a small clump turned into a ground cover.

You can check out Margaret’s podcast about dividing plants and see a video of dividing European wild ginger right here.

ALL OF THIS AND MORE CAN BE FOUND IN my popular, award-winning book, Making More Plants, now available in a soft-bound edition.

 

THE SCENTUAL GARDEN WINS THE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 2020 BOOK AWARD!

MARGARET ROACH AND I TALK ABOUT SOME WAYS TO COPE IN THIS DIFFICULT TIME

As many visitors to my website know, I appear on Margaret Roach’s podcast and radio show every month. We thought it would be nice to make these appearances available here, on my site. You can listen to this month’s show by clicking on this link to the audio player. A transcript of the show (along with past episodes and transcripts) can be found at Margaret’s wonderful website awaytogarden.com.

Margaret and I react to the currant difficulties — the corona virus. The garden and gardening offer the perfect, helpful and useful diversion. I’m cleaning houseplants, raking a bit outside, cleaning up planting beds, reviewing catalogs, ordering some seeds (if they aren’t sold out), shopping! I talk about some favorite houseplants — hoyas. Check us out as a podcast or Margaret’s transcription at awaytogarden.com.

What’s blooming in the winter garden? Not much, but look closer. The witch hazels are in full flower. ‘Westerstede’ (left) is a dependable fragrant pale-yellow shrub. A couple with strong fruity scents, here, are the dwarf ‘Quasimodo’ and the pretty red-flowered ‘Rochester’. The witch hazels are blooming now, in their sixth week! Amazing.

The snowdrops are just about passing over, now. Snowdrops are not native to my area and are part of the zoo I should call my collector’s garden. That said, they are not invasive where I live, but do increase the size of their clumps over the years. Should I be without them? Very few things are beginning to bloom, now. (Galanthus with early Crocus tommasinianus, far left.)

This year, there hasn’t been much snow and it has gotten rather warm. On February 24, it was 59 degrees. If insects wake up and are looking for food, they may find the witch hazels and snowdrops — maybe not. Galanthus, members of the Amaryllis family, are poisonous and will not be eaten by critters – even deer.

Many people say snowdrop flowers are fragrant. The French writer Colette wrote that perce-neige smelled like orange blossoms. You may bend down to the ground and not detect very much. That could be because it is very cold out. If you try to smell one and it doesn’t have a scent, warm it up by breathing on the flower or cut it and bring it inside. To me, Galanthus nivalis smells like honey, with indole. Indole is a molecular compound found in many flowers that can best be described as a faint smell of mothballs. Indole smells floral in trace amounts but most unpleasant in heavier concentrations. Not all the flowers seem to smell the same. The individual blossoms smell different from one another. The age of the flower and the time of day (or night) seem to affect the aroma. One that had been open for almost two weeks smelled of licorice.

Try this and see what you think. Close your eyes and take little sniffs, not deep breaths. You want to keep the smell when your olfactory receptors are fresh and have not become accustomed or anesthetize.

For many years, we mostly knew one snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis. Its green leaves grow four to six inches tall; the flowers are white with green markings on the inner petals, and the scent outdoors is honey-like, mossy, earthy. There are 20 species, however, and scores of selections and hybrids, but very few are offered in the US. You might come across another easy species, G. elwessii, which is more vigorous and a bit taller at six to ten inches. Its flowers are similar, but the strappy leaves are longer, wider, and gray green. The scent of G. elwessii has been said to be like violets, but to me, it’s a bit musty honey with a touch of mothballs (indole), lily, and the faintest hints of wintergreen and black pepper. G. allenii is a mid-sized plant bearing white flowers with an army-green spot on the inner petals and an almond scent.

There are hundreds of hybrids and cultivars in England where there is a cult of snowdrops and dev otees are sometimes referred to as “Galanthophiles.” The rarest new introduction may go for $300 or $400. But, I bought a very nice bulb in flower from England for only £12 (and slightly more for postage). It’s called ‘Trumps’.

In general, when you buy bulbs, you may be able to divide them before planting. Tunicate bulbs such as daffodils split to produce offsets attached at the basal plate. These can be pried apart when the bulbs are dormant in late summer and planted separately. Tunicate bulbs may also be reproduced by slicing down into them and including a bit of basal plate with each piece.  This method, called “chipping,” is the principle way bulbs are produced commercially, including rare, expensive Galanthus varieties. (I wouldn’t risk it, but…)

In the autumn, tiny Galanthus bulbs can be sectioned into eight to sixteen pieces with their basal plates attached.  the bulbs can then be placed in moist vermiculite (commercial growers first dip the sections in fungicide).  New bulbs will grow in-between the scales. The following spring, the sections will be removed and potted individually in fast draining medium to grow until the following autumn, when, if they have grown to blooming size, they may be planted in the garden.  The developing bulbs should be fed with an organic phosphorus and potassium fertilizer when there is green top growth.