Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it I is, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to bring you yet another didactic post. You may remember me from such posts as “The Peony”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It was a pretty nice day, despite being depressingly, though not horrifyingly, dry.
The guy I live with did a tiny bit of work in the garden, being very careful about his back. One of the things he talked about was how there was very little precise information about things like planting bulbs. He said advice like “plant bulbs in well-drained soil” is beyond meaningless, since bulbs don’t grow in “well-drained soil” in real life; they grow mostly in clay soil, which is impenetrable to summer rain and protects the bulbs from drying out.
He said a more reasonable statement would be “If you live in an area with lots of summer rain, then you’re going to need to find a way to keep bulbs from getting too wet during their summer dormancy.”
So we were already off to a great start.
He said there’s very little precise information with some bulbs on which side is up. Tulips and daffodils are obvious, but some are not. Some even have no obvious “right side up”, like corydalis, but those are exceptions.
He got some bulbs of Brodiaea (or Triteleia) ‘Rudy’, and they were not super easy to tell which side was up, without looking very closely.
He did still plant some upside-down, but saw his mistake before he covered the corms with soil.
up
down
The guy I live said a lot of this was trial and error, also sometimes involving looking at bulbs with a 20X lens.
Some people say if you’re not sure which side is up to plant the bulbs on a slant, which he’s tried, with variable results.
“There are no classes for beginners in life”, he said, quoting Rilke.
With erythroniums, you plant them with the round end down, even if it looks like the roots are on the other end. (The guy I live with has planted erythroniums upside-down. They didn’t emerge the next spring.)
Just today, the guy I live with made a comment on Facebook that the “saffron crocus” pictured on the post of a “garden influencer” were Crocus speciosus. He said to me that there was no wonder the “influencer” had never harvested saffron.
Crocus speciosus like these:
The picture below has been posted before. This is Crocus speciosus, a watercolor done by the guy I live with’s late wife when she was a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.
This hung in the Smithsonian for a while.
You can see in the lower left that the corm and cormlets (or cormels) have roots.
Since he’s been checking bulbs growing in pond baskets to make sure they have roots before winter sets in, he took these corms of Crocus laevigatus out of a basket.
You can see that new corms have emerged from the dry husk of last year’s corm, with flowering shoots. The species name laevigatus means “smooth”, referring to the smooth tunic on the corm, which is very appearent.
You can also see that something is missing. The energy of the emerging flowering shoot is going to be sapped if the corm can’t pull water from the soil via roots, so he replanted these and watered them thoroughly. Maybe we’ll check on them in a week.
I know it’s a surprise that the content of this post has turned to crocus, but here’s Crocus cartwrightianus again. The guy I live with thinks this is the selection called ‘Marcel.
And this is Crocus cartwrightianus ‘Halloween’ again.
Maybe not too much difference between the two, but ‘Halloween’ is always later by a week or two.
Here’s a Crocus mathewii, too. Another saffron crocus.
I think that brings today’s didactic post to an end. Just another day of the two of us not doing much, though I did get to chase a rabbit. That was highly enjoyable; I didn’t catch the rabbit if you were worried.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Such beautiful crocuses. It was a gorgeous autumn day in the metro area. Now if only we’d get some bloody moisture. 🤞🏼
Thanks; it was a nice day.
The guy I live with said the grass in the green belt was looking so nice and healthy, and then they came and mowed it, and then the wind dried it out. He’s pretty annoyed by this and doesn’t understand why they can’t leave the grass alone.
If you mow grass, you have to water it.
Years ago the guy I live with put in a buffalo grass yard next door and the homeowner mowed it the the ground constantly, and never watered it.
The grass is all dead now.
Mee-yow Mani yore Guy nose so much about gardenin an plantin….BellaSita sorta tossess bulbss innto the soil an buriess them….she iss NOT a Gardener by ANY stretch of emagination! THE crocussess are speck-taculur!! Mani yore couch foto iss su-burrb!! Yore so hansum!
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks.
The guy I live with has planted more than a few bulbs upside down.
Mew mew mew so has BellaSita Mani!!!
That watercolor is beautiful, and what an honor.
I got a kick out of the “influencer” story (quotation marks doing a lot of good work there) and think I know who the real influencer is.
The guy I live with said the influencer responded and thanked him. That was nice.
Talk about “no classes”, that watercolor was done by an entirely self-taught person. Most of his wife’s watercolors are in a museum now, but he kept the crocus and one other.
If I’m not sure which way up to plant a bulb, I plant it sideways – the shoot always comes up and the root goes down without any obstruction
That does work. Sometimes.
The painting of Crocus speciosus is exquisite! Many thanks for showing it.
You’re welcome.
I love the watercolor so much. I remember your guy once showed us one his wife did of a sphinx moth, visiting a flower whose type I can’t remember. Was so lovely. Perhaps that is the other one he kept.
Oh, that was probably the yucca drawing that was never finished. That’s in the Hunt Institure for Botanical Documentation at Carnegia Mellon University.
Oh Mani,
you lead the life of Riley. Leisurely days on your couch, chasing the occasional rabbit. What could be better? I would like to think that the GYLW is an influencer as well. With so many years of knowledge these ‘younger’ ones should be checking in with him before they post anything. Another glorious photo of C. mathewii’s interior. The detail is so easily missed if you don’t get down and close.
The guy I live with said probably people don’t check things as closely as he does, but he is kind of a nut.
The influencer did thank him, which was nice.
The guy I live with spent a lot of time on the couch when his back was really hurting, and then he discovered that lying on the couch feeling sorry for yourself is not recommended.