Bulbs easy to save for next year if you follow a few simple tips
Although overwintering tender bulbs is quite easy, I don’t recommend doing it the way I did last fall.
In my annual rush to clean up the garden and prepare for cold weather, I grabbed a pot holding a tuberous begonia off the porch, stashed it in an unheated room and promptly forgot about it.
For months, it sat ignored — no water, little light, no attention paid to its spindly shoots.
When spring finally arrived and I discovered my neglected charge, I pronounced it dying if not already dead, dumped it out of the pot and tossed it outside into a shady corner.
Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon it in June, only to find it sprouting not just leaves but also flowers!
Humbled yet again by Mother Nature and the mysterious ways of plants, I repotted it with fresh potting medium and gave it a good drink — and it soon covered itself with lush leaves and beautiful blooms.
Tuberous begonias are just one of the many tender ornamental plants with tubers, rhizomes or other bulblike structures that gardeners can bring indoors this time of year, carefully store through winter, then repot or replant in the garden in spring.
A few other favorites include foliage plants such as caladium and elephant ears, and flowering beauties such as canna lily, dahlia and gladiolus.
As I accidentally illustrated, the “tender” in “tender bulb” refers only to the inability of these plants to withstand Ohio’s freezing winters, not to their rugged overall constitution.
Although specifics vary from species to species, most require the same basic steps for overwintering:
• Let a light frost kill the tops of the plants, but dig them up before the ground freezes.
• Cut off dead stems and leaves; brush away dirt and remove any roots or parts of the bulb that look diseased or dead. With flowers like this — in shade, no less — tuberous begonias are worth overwintering. Dahlias grow from tubers that, with proper storage, will grow and bloom again next summer.
• Label them, so you remember what’s what when spring comes.
• Store in a ventilated container in peat moss or sawdust in an area where they won’t freeze, such as a garage or basement.
Check every month or so and mist with water if they start to shrivel, or, if mold begins to develop, increase their exposure to air. It’s easy to see how colocasia, or taro, earned its common name “elephant ears.” What’s the point? Gladiolus are old-time favorites that grow from tender bulblike structures called corms. • To keep a personal favorite. Perhaps some gladiolus bulbs from a friend or relative hold sentimental value, or maybe a gardener adores the particular shade of pink in a certain dahlia.
• To take advantage of species that multiply. The bulbs of canna lilies, for instance (technically called rhizomes), grow bigger every year and can be divided to create more plants.
• To savor the satisfaction of keeping a living thing going from year to year. While iPhones and lattes come and go, a dahlia looks beautiful every summer. Purple passion plant, velvet plant
Light: partial shade Height: 1 to 2 feet
Spread: 2 to 4 feet
USDA Hardiness Zones: 10 to 12
Origin: Java
The purple passion plant (Gynura aurantiaca) is a great textured plant for the home.
This plant has irregularly lobed, ovate, green leaves with purple hairs that give it a velvety appearance. The underside of the leaves, which are also covered in fur, are a reddish-purple.
Purple passion plant has an irregular growth habit, with branches growing in multiple directions, and weaker stems often drooping from the weight of the velvet leaves. This growth habit makes it a nice plant for a hanging basket or simply letting it drape over a shelf.
The starburst-shaped flowers are light orange and noted for their unpleasant, rancid butter aroma — a smell that can be minimized simply by removing the flower buds.
In the home, place the purple passion plant in a bright room with filtered, indirect sunlight. Do not over-water; allow the soil to dry out between watering.
Touch the purple passion plant in the Dorothy M. Davis Showhouse as part of Harvest Blooms, now on display at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.