V Is for Valentine’s Day

Forget the single stem roses this year! Come into Wegman's and find something meaningful and lasting for your Valentine. Wegman's has a great selection of blooming plants, gardening gifts and more. The blooming plants will be ready for you to add a card, as they will already be wrapped with foil and bow for giving!

Here are some sweet ideas:
• Give the gift of music with a wind chime.
• Select a blooming azalea, hydrangea, tulip, daffodil or fragrant freesia in a beautiful container for your Valentine’s desk as a constant reminder of your love. Remember they will be giving-ready.
• Orchids are our favorite choice! Phalaenopsis or cymbidium, they are both gorgeous.
• Select a rose to plant in your garden for a lasting, fragrant reminder of your love every time it blooms through the coming years.
• Choose a garden bench to sit together on and enjoy lingering sunsets and conversations or time with grandma.
• Add a bird bath to your garden for hours of enjoyment for both your love and the birds in your garden.
• Too many choices? Give a Wegman’s Gift Card and let that special someone have the joy of planning the garden with some extra pizzazz!

If someone told you that your investment could be doubled in one year, you might be just a little bit suspicious. But, that’s exactly what can happen if you plant summer bulbs. In the Bay Area, summer bulbs are planted between late winter and early spring so they will bloom during the summer. There is a variety of bulbs to fit every need. You can select bulbs that will produce flowers in every color, and plants ranging from 15 inches to 80 inches in height. They are all perennials and with proper care if you plant one bulb this year, you will have two or more next year. Yes, flower bulbs can double or triple your investment!

The old "bulb" question arises again. We call them all bulbs for convenience and simplicity when some are actually corms or tubers or rhizomes. Regardless, they all are treated pretty much the same way. We are talking about Calla Lilies, Cannas, Dahlias, Gladiolus, Oriental/Asiatic Lilies, Crocosmia, Tigridia, Belladonna Amaryllis ('Naked Ladies'), and Tuberose. Each of them has a special place in the garden but they all need some help in our Bay Area soil (see our Care Guide on Soil). Our heavy clay soil needs to be amended with organic matter so that our bulbs can get a foothold in their new home. If you can’t amend a large flower bed, you can amend each planting hole (at least one cubic foot) with one-third amendment such as Gold Rush to two-thirds native soil. Most of these flowers look best planted in a group so you may want to prepare a 4 foot by 4 foot or even a 3 foot by 10 foot bed (using the Soil Care Guide recipe) when planting your bulbs. All summer bulbs except the Oriental/Asiatic Lilies require full sun. Less than that will produce fewer, smaller flowers.

Gladioli (Glads) don’t work too well in a mixed perennial bed so they are best relegated to the cutting garden where they can be cut for use in the home or as gifts. Glad bulbs should be planted about four times deeper than their thickness and four to six inches apart. When they are planted close together, the stems will support each other and not require staking. Plant a dozen or more glads at two week intervals so that you have an extended blooming period.

Gladiolus foliage should be left until it turns brown and then sometime later the bulbs with their little "bulblets" are dug and stored for the winter.

Dahlias come in so many sizes and shapes that we have prepared a separate Care Guide for Dahlias alone. The main rule for the tall "dinner-plate" dahlias is that you plant them about 12 inches deep with a supporting stake and then cover them as they grow through the soil.

Asiatic and Oriental Lilies prefer to have some afternoon shade and can be grown in between shrubs or perennials. They range in size from 15 to 48 inches in height, so plan ahead! The shorter ones make attractive container plants, especially when surrounded by lobelia or alyssum. Be sure to use a top quality potting soil such as Gardener's Gold in your pots.

Tigridia is a sprightly low growing (to 18 inches) plant ideal for a corner or in-between trees or shrubs that need some summer color. It naturalizes well and will provide color for years to come.

Crocosmia is similar to Tigridia but taller (up to 36 inches) with multiple flowers along its stem. It also naturalizes.

The Belladonna Amaryllis (Naked Ladies) blooms faithfully during the first three weeks of August. The bulbs multiply like rabbits and after several years will form a large cluster with one third of their mass above ground. Not to worry, they bloom just as well that way but will have to be divided after five or six years. The foliage appears after the flowers have finished blooming (hence the common name) and must be left until it turns brown. The belladonna bulb is a source of the drug of that name. In the past, ladies would make a tincture of the drug to drop in their eyes, making the pupils especially large, hence the name bella donna, translated beautiful lady!

Tuberose produces an especially fragrant flower which blooms in late summer. There may be several stalks per plant but the foliage is not particularly exciting and the snails will feast on it. Mr. Ed grows it in a container out in the back forty and when it is ready to bloom brings it up next to the front entrance where its fragrance can be enjoyed. When the bloom is finished, it goes out back to finish its growth for the year.

Cannas can get up to 7 or 8 feet tall and now are available with solid green leaves or leaves with multicolored yellow, red, and orange stripes. The leaves are almost as attractive as the flowers which are on long stalks above the leaves. As each stem finishes flowering, cut it to the ground and new stems will continue to grow throughout the summer and early fall. Every 3 or 4 years divide the clumps of bulbs to share or replant.

There are several species of Calla Lilies. The old fashioned one with the big white flower (which is really not a flower) and big green leaves is semi-deciduous, depending on winter temperature. The smaller species with pink, yellow or rose colored ‘flowers’ are deciduous and disappear for the winter. All Callas will bloom in full to half day sun and can remain in place for at least five years. When they get crowded, they don’t bloom as well as earlier.

All summer bulbs require some water. They are somewhat drought resistant but will not bloom and survive if they receive no summer irrigation. A sprinkling of Master Nursery or Dr. Earth Rose and Flower Fertilizer spread over the entire root area of the plants during early June will greatly benefit flower production.

If there is any downside to summer bulbs, it is that they are not gopher-proof like the Narcissus. Those of you in gopher country may need to use a gopher basket for your bulbs.

If you are good to your plants, they will reward you with masses of flowers and will at least double your investment in new bulbs for years to come.

The Spring Glory Forsythia is a drought and deer resistive shrub that explodes in brilliant masses of yellow flowers. This forsythia blooms in spring as the flower precedes the leaves. This plant likes full sun, moderate water and grows to 8 feet tall and 6 wide. It is perfect as a background shrub or as a feature in the perennial garden. Feed in spring with Formula 49.

Put some color in your life--primroses are starting to bloom. The primrose is an unusually vivid fall/winter/spring blooming perennial flower. Unlike the subtle pastels associated with winter and spring, primroses shout out in bold yellows, reds, pinks and blues. The flower stalks of primroses shoot up from low, ground-hugging rosettes of thick green leaves, staying in bloom for weeks. They should be planted in full sun through the fall and winter with rich, well draining, slightly acid soil (pH 6.5). Primroses need to be planted so that their crown is right at soil level, and at least six inches apart.

Design Suggestions: Primroses will brighten a shady corner. They look especially good massed under a tree or in a rocky setting. Primroses are a good choice for the north side of a house or as an early spring ground cover under foundation shrubs.

Concern® Weed Prevention Plus® 8-2-4 w/Corn Gluten, 25 lb. Bag

Corn Gluten Meal was discovered in 1986 to have the ability to inhibit the germination of grass and weed seeds in test plots at the Iowa State University Research Foundation. Further tests revealed that corn gluten meal contains naturally occurring substances which inhibit the growth of the seed's tiny feeder roots, causing the weed seedlings to die before they ever have a chance to grow. Corn Gluten Meal is an animal feed by-product of the manufacture of corn starch. Used as directed, Weed Prevention Plus is safe around people, pets, and wildlife. Weed Prevention Plus will not harm beneficial insects, soil organisms, ponds or stream life.

Price: 5 lb. Shaker bag--$16.99/25 lb bag–$34.99 (covers 1500 sq ft)

Now is the time to apply Easy Livin’ Pre-Emergent Weed Preventer & Lawn Food to control of grass and broadleaf weeds including crabgrass, oxalis and spurge in your home lawn.

Price: 16 lbs. treats up to 5,000 sq. ft. $32.99