I felt I could better appreciate them in a different area.
I move a lot of plants when they are in full bloom.
This is not a good habit, but I do believe that there are many of us out there who do so.
It has its advantages.
The number one advantage is that you know what you are moving and you know immediately how it will look with whatever else is in bloom at the same time. (I have moved many things that were not the color I expected when they bloomed. Just today I dug up a yellow daylilly that I moved last year thinking it was orange.)
The only disadvantage that I see is that your rate of success is drastically cut unless you pay very close attention to how you do it.
With lily bulbs you must make sure you dig below the bulb. This is not as easy as it sounds. I felt pretty good when I dug out this one
Until I went inside to get my camera. While taking the picture I noticed this
See where I unknowingly severed the stem from the bulb?
Not good.
The bulb will not be able to get any energy from the sun for next year's growth since it is no longer connected to the stem and leaves.
I never give up hope, so I planted it in the water-drenched hole I dug prior to digging it out.
I moved 5 or 6 of these to the areas where you see the arrows below. I believe I severed half of them....not a good day for me.
I also changed the areas where you see the circles (I moved a couple of daylilies, removed the lychnis coronaria that I just put there last week (decided I did not like it after all) and pulled out the pink Sweet William.
When I finished it looked like this:
(hopefully it will get bigger if you click on it; otherwise I guess I wasted a lot of time posting it because you can't see much when it's this size)
At the moment I am happy with it.
I don't usually move too things. I do like to divide things though. I just divided some lamb's ear. I will be pulling up space hogging baby's breath that hardly had any blooms on it.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks fantastic!!!
Dianne,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much.
I must say, I LIVE to move plants. LOL. I just can't seem to leave them alone.
If I walk by and think, "Gee that would look nice over there," I just grab a shovel and move it over.
I forgot I also dug out more of the "space hogging" non-obedient plant today, too.
I sure am sorry I ever planted that one.
I was doing that on Saturday, moving some plants around...poppies and irises. Hopefully I didn't damage them...always hate it when that happens! lol My Sweet Williams did so poorly this year, I think I'll pull them out and start from scratch next year! Your garden looks beautiful Zoey!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pea. How long have you had the Sweet Williams? They are a biennial and they reseed every year. So don't deadhead them until they drop seeds if you want to have more next year.
ReplyDeleteI am working in my St. Louis flower garden today. My expertise level and technique sounds somewhat similar to yours. My question is whether I can successfully move some asiatic lillies to a new spot NOW? They are about 18 inches tall and nowhere near blooming. I have had them approximately three years. My sister shared a portion of a paper bag of bulbs she bought from a man at a farm sale. These are the first asiatic lillies I have grown.
ReplyDelete