Summer bulbs

Unusual Summer bulbs 

Do you associate planting bulbs with fall?  If that’s the case, you may be missing out on some wonderful flowers that are grown from bulbs planted in spring and that bloom in summer and fall.  I like interesting and different plants and some of the spring planted bulbs provide plenty of interest.  Spring planted bulbs many gardeners are familiar with are dahlias, glads, and cannas but there are many more bulbs gardeners should get to know.  (Some of these have tubers, corms or rhizomes botanically but are generally lumped together with bulbs.) Let’s explore some of those lesser known spring planted bulbs, tubers, rhizomes and corms.

Calla lilies -Zantedeschia aethiopica  are great summer bulbs.  You may be familiar with the small plants sold in nurseries with a wide assortment of colors, including one that’s nearly black.   The foliage ranges from narrow sword shaped leaves to broader oval shaped leaves.  Some varieties have leaves spotted with white.  But there are callas you can buy that make huge plants, covered in large impressive flowers.  The common species can grow 3 feet high and wide with huge white flowers. ‘Green Goddess’ has white flowers that shade to green near the tip  and a  frilled edge.  These plants can get 5 feet high. 

Callas prefer full sun in the north and light to partial shade in the south.  These plants are not hardy below zone 8.  They are very frost tender and should not be put outside until after the last frost.  You can start them inside a month earlier.  Callas can be used as pond plants, with the pots sat in shallow water.  Keep about half of the pot above the water line.  You can treat them as annuals or store the bulbs over the winter.  If you intend to store the bulbs cut off any seed pods that start to develop on the plants after blooming.

Calla lilies

Bat flowers, (Tacca chantrieri, black and Tacca integrifolia, white) can both be grown from a tuber planted in spring. These plants have flowers that some say look like a flying bat with long dangling whiskers.  Actually the bat wings are flower bracts and the small purple flowers are below them.   While you might pay more than $20 for a small started plant in houseplant catalogs, you’ll pay much less if you buy these from bulb catalogs.  Put them in pots on the patio for summer interest and you can bring them inside and use them as houseplants in the winter. 

Bat flowers are not hardy and must not be put outside before all frost danger has passed and brought inside well before frost in fall.  They need shade outside and bright indirect light inside.  They must be kept moist and like humid areas.  They can start blooming when they have two leaves.  They will bloom at intervals, eight or more times a year.

Crocosemia  Crocosmia masonorum. have gently arched, tall wands of scarlet, yellow or orange flowers that can brighten up garden beds or star in pots. There are a number of named varieties.  Hummingbirds are attracted to them.  The leaves look like glad leaves.  Crocosemia are hardy to zone 6 and the crocosemia  corms can be dug up in fall and stored like glad corms in colder zones.  You can also plant them in pots and move the whole pot inside for storage.  They multiply quickly.  These plants like full sun and moist conditions.  I set pots of them in back of my decorative pond.

Crocosemia

Acidanthera (Acidanthera murielae) or peacock orchids are another plant with glad like leaves and the gently nodding star shaped, white flowers are marked with a red blotch in the center. The flowers have a sweet, light fragrance and make good cut flowers.  Plant these thickly in a pot or garden bed for the best show.  They have a long period of late summer bloom.  The corms are inexpensive and in planting zone 6 and below you could just treat them like annuals, planting new corms each year.  (In zone 7 they are marginally hardy and hardy in zones higher than 7.) 

You can dig the corms in the fall like glad corms and store them.  Or do like I do and plant them in large pots, moving the pots inside during the winter, where they will go dormant.  Each year the corms multiply and soon you can divide the corms into two pots.  Acidanthera are slow to emerge from dormancy in spring so don’t discard them thinking they are dead.

Peacock lily

Rain lilies - Zephyranthes spp.  are winter hardy in zone 7 and higher but northern gardeners can plant the bulbs in pots and bring them inside for winter.  These plants have grass like leaves and after a rain or a good soaking they quickly produce small perky flowers in pink, yellow or white.  There are many named varieties.  Plant them in full sun.  They need to dry out between watering to promote bloom.  Rain lilies multiply quickly.

I have mine in a large pot that sits outside in the summer and is brought inside to a cool area for winter.  I get several flushes of flowers after they come inside in the fall, then they go dormant for the coldest part of winter.  Sometimes they die to the ground, in other winters the leaves stay green.  Then when the days lengthen in spring, I get flowers before the plants go back outside after the last frost.

Rain lilies

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) have a wonderful scent.  Pot up some of these and put them on the patio or near a place you sit in summer. The flowers are in clusters on a long stem and come in the traditional white as well as a variety of colors.  Bulbs have gotten rather expensive for small bulbs in the last few years so you may want to put a few in with other plants.  Butterflies are attracted to the scent of tuberose.   They like full sun.

Tuberose is only hardy in zone 8.  You can dig up the bulbs and save them overwinter like glad corms or move a pot with dormant bulbs inside to store through winter.

Tuberose

Starfish Iris- Ferraria crispa, this isn’t a true iris, but it blooms about the same time as bearded iris.   The leaves are iris like too.  You could plant it in the ground, but they show up better in pots, as an unusual conversation piece.  The 6 petals of the flower have gold edges that are frilled, the petals are white and spotted with maroon or mauve. They do resemble a starfish in many ways.   Some of the plants have flowers with a pleasant vanilla scent but some plants have flowers with a foul odor.

Starfish iris is only hardy to about zone 8.  It needs full sun and well drained soil.  After it blooms it goes dormant as summer heats up.  Keep the dormant corms in the pot on the dry side through summer and remember to bring the pot inside in fall for winter storage.

Ground orchids - (Bletilla striata) - are a rhizome planted in spring that can be hardy to zone 6.  They bloom in late spring to early summer and the blooms look like small orchids in shades of pink, white, purple and lavender.   The leaves are sword shaped, with a papery texture and a crease.  The plants are only 18 inches high so make sure to plant them where you can see them and appreciate them.

Hardy ground orchids should be planted in partial shade, in rich loamy soil.   It takes a year or two for them to establish and become showy but it’s worth the wait.  They slowly increase over time eventually becoming a mass of showy small flowers in spring.

Lycoris- spider lilies, naked ladies or surprise lilies.  These lilies have numerous names that mostly reflect their blooming habit.  The bloom stalks appear as if by magic from the ground in mid to late summer, long after the long strap like leaves which appeared in spring have faded and died.  There are species and hybrids that flower in red, yellow, pink and white.  The flowers are in clusters at the top of stalks about 2 feet tall.  They have long stamens protruding from the flowers that give them the spider lily moniker.

Hardiness ratings for lycoris vary.  I have seen them blooming by the roadside here in zone 5, completely hardy, left over from old home sites.  Yet I have been unable to get some colors to be winter hardy and some are rated only to zone 7.  In zones 6 and lower I suggest planting lycoris in tubs and bringing the tubs inside to a cool place to over winter.   Lycoris prefer full sun but may bloom in partial shade.  They multiply, especially in the ground and become large clumps.

Crinum lilies are related to the amaryllis, with similar looking flowers.  However, many species are hardy, at least to zone 6.  Make sure to check the hardiness rating of any bulbs you buy.  Bulbs are generally planted in spring.  It’s been my experience that some bulbs will not bloom the year you plant them.  Crinums once established in the proper planting zones are extremely long lived, surviving for generations.   Unlike amaryllis the leaves stay green throughout the growing season.  Flower colors are shades of red, pink and white, with at least one red striped variety.

Crinum lilies like full sun and moist soil, although they can survive periods of dryness. They are good plants for rain gardens.   If you live in a zone where they aren’t hardy, like me, you can grow them in large pots, which you move inside to a cool bright place in winter.  My plant stays green all winter.  Some of these gorgeous flowers are even fragrant.  Plants get up to 5 feet tall, depending on variety so plan accordingly.

Coral Drops- (Bessera elegans) are related to the onions and their narrow round leaves will remind you of the alliums or a clump of chives.  The plants are only about 10 inches tall, but the flower spikes will rise to about 18 inches. The buds are showy coral red drops dangling from the flower spikes and probably the reason for the common name.  When they open the dainty, ‘flying” flowers have 6 red orange petals, each with a stripe down the center.  In some flowers the stripe is white, in others a darker red than the petals. The center of the flower is lighter in color, almost white. There are 6 very long anthers, they remind me of birds legs sticking out of the flower. The one female part, the pistil in the center of the flower, is deep purple.

Coral drops aren’t hardy except in zones 8 and higher. Plant 6-8 corms in a 10” pot about 3 inches deep in a well-draining potting mixture. You’ll get lots of summer flowers if they are kept moist and in full sun.  Move the pots inside for winter storage.  The leaves will die, and the corms go dormant.  You can also dig the corms and store them like glads.

Coral drops

I’m sure I have forgotten some of the unusual bulbs, corms and rhizomes that one plants in spring for summer flowers.  And some catalogs sell oriental, tiger and species lilies for spring planting, although I think they should be planted in fall.  I ‘ve included some more reading links to longer articles on some of the plants below.

 

http://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/cannas-bold-and-beautiful-if-you-crave.html

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/coral-drops-bessera-elegans-do-you-like.html

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/crocosemia-or-montbretia-crocosemia.html

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/gladiolus.html