#46 Still Talking About Bulbs

We are still talking about bulbs. We’ve already talked about sun-loving bloomers. It’s time to talk about bulbs planted for their foliage. Remember, plants have leaves too, and sometimes those leaves can add a dramatic effect in the garden.

Caladium

One of the best known foliage bulbs is the Caladium, a tuber from the tropical forests of South and Central America. The joy of these plants is that they grow anyplace: they prefer shade but will tolerate sun with good watering.

The madman knows the Caladium produces a flower, but he has never seen one – he only looks at the leaves which come in a variety of colors and patterns. The main colors are red, pink and white often mixed with green. But, with over 1000 cultivars any gardener can go crazy with the effect of these plants. Caterpillars and slugs can damage leaves, but we have been lucky in that department. However, squirrels, chipmunks and voles have been known to steal tubers and deer sometimes munch on the young shoots. We just keep a good eye out.

Caladium tubers are a bit more sensitive to temperature drops than other bulbs. They hate soil temperatures below 55˚and prefer air temperatures above 70˚. We plant them late and lift them early or we replace them. For the most part, we plant the tubers in a bed on the eastern side of our house where they get shade from lilacs and a pear tree. With luck we’ll find the perfect one for the moon garden this year.

Elephant Ears

Although some Caladiums are referred to as elephant ears, this reference sends the madman into a tizzy. What he calls Elephant Ears comes from the genus Colocasia or Alocasia, not the genus Caladium. They belong to the same family, Araceae, but he insists they are all different.

Our first experience with the Elephant Ears came at the Hartford Flower Show many years ago. I was looking at an exhibit and the madman wandered off. When I finally found him I thought he had bought a couple of bowling balls. “Wait ‘til you see what these are,” he exclaimed. Of course, they came with no instructions and, if you can imagine it, this was a time before google. We enjoyed some impressive leaves that summer, but were stunned when nothing came up the next spring. Coming from Southeastern Asia and India, they are not hardy in our Connecticut planting zone.

The starchy corms, or tubers, which are actually edible produce large heart shaped leaves that scream the tropics. They hate the cold, nothing below 50˚, thank you, but love moisture and a soil temperature of 65˚. The madman grows them in pots in partial shade around the house, but he has been known to throw pots and all into a shallow pond. We cut the plants back and bring them inside as soon as the weather turns cool. Seems the madman likes the Aracea family because of the exotic nature of these plants.

Araceas with an Olfactory Surprise

The Aracea family has an interesting member, the Sauromatum venosum. Let me tell you about it. We had the pleasure of touring the greenhouses at UConn during a Cactus and Succulent Society meeting. Hidden in one corner was a pot with a single red shoot and a label that said, “Voodoo Lily.” The madman had to have one. He ordered one and planted the tuber. Eventually a red shoot popped up. This started to produce a strange but beautiful flower. We had never seen anything like it before, nor had we smelled anything like it before. The flower is pollinated by flies, the kind of flies that go crazy for stinking, rancid meat. Our house wasn’t fit to sit in while it bloomed. Fortunately the bloom only lasted one day. If you want to experiment with this one, be careful.

The Voodoo Lily comes from southern Asia and is hardy to zone 6, but I wouldn’t trust this and leave it outside. Ours are in pots that come inside for the winter. As far as plants go, care is a breeze – we keep it watered, but not wet and rarely fertilize it. The foliage dies back in the winter.

Another Voodoo

Because common names are often misleading, the madman has another Voodoo Lily from the Aracea family, Amorphophallus konjac. This is another stinker that is pollinated by flies and other insects and comes from the same area of Asia as S. venosum. The foliage is totally different, but care is the same. The saving grace of these plants is that the smelly blooms are short-lived.

The Missing Lilies

As we finish our bulb list, you may have noticed a glaring omission. We haven’t included Lilies – neither Asiatic nor Oriental despite the fact that we both love them. In fact, when the kids outgrew the sandbox, we turned it into a lily bed. Because lilies like good drainage we felt that if we took out half of the sand and added good compost the box would be perfect. The sand box was in the center of the back yard so it got full sun; lilies need 8-10 hours of sun a day.

The classification of lilies is a rather complicated can of worms, one that we never bothered to open. If you want to open this can, the nice people at the North American Lily Society are ready to help you out.

We just wanted a nice selection of lilies that would add a sweet fragrance and beautiful color to the back yard. So, we ordered a selection of Asiatic and Oriental lilies, the two most commonly available members of the Lilium family at that time.

Asiatic Lilies

The Asiatic lilies are hybrids derived mostly from central and eastern Asian species. They are breed for beauty, not fragrance, much to our surprise when they flowered in early summer. Thanks to a strong upright stem, most don’t require staking. They tend to be lower growing than their cousin, the Oriental Lily.

Oriental Lilies

As the blooms of the Asiatics faded, those of the Oriental Lilies began to open. The madman was delighted by the intoxicating smell. Although perhaps the easiest lily to grow, these did require staking, something we found out the hard way.

Both of these types of lilies easily overwinter in Connecticut. In fact, some need cold to set blossoms. We put a layer of mulch on the beds when the ground froze. For a couple of years we were happy with the lily bed – beautiful blooms early; fragrant blooms later.

Red Lily Leaf Beetle

Then Lilioceris lilii showed up. When we first saw her, we thought her a pretty red bug. But, it turns out the Red Lily Leaf Beetle is devastating to true lilies and the gardeners who grow them. Within a couple of years we had no lilies left and haven’t had the heart to plant them since.

In fact, last summer, friend Bridget showed us her new lily bed. The madman bent down to inspect the leaves. Sure enough, the damage had begun, and on the underside of leaves he found piles of frass. As an example of how disgusting this insect is, the larvae cover themselves with their excrement. Ugh! Picking them off with bare hands. Double Ugh! Fortunately Bridget had a small bed so the madman recommended hand removal, as repulsive as it was to her. Actually, Bridget sent her son out every day to drop the little buggers into a jar of soapy water. She reported a good lily crop.

Control of the Red Lily Leaf Beetle

For gardeners with a large bed or no son to do the dirty work, NEEM or Spinosad offer chemical treatments. If you are considering using this method, the madman says, “Make darn sure you read the label and follow the directions exactly. Remember, just because a little is good, a lot doesn’t make it any better – consider the well-being of the beneficial insects out there, besides the label is the law.”

Wasps to the Rescue

On a positive note, there has been recent work on fighting this European invader with safe, classical, biological control – parasitoid wasps. As luck would have it, Gail Reynolds, the Master Gardener Coordinator in Haddam, has had some experience with this. So the madman and I paid her a visit. For the past few years, Gail has been working to introduce three species of parasitoid wasps to select lily beds in the state.

According to Gail Lemophaghus errabunda, Diaparsis jacunda and Tetrasichus setifer are an effective control for this beetle. But, effectivity is in the eyes of the beholder. The problem is getting the lily gardener to understand and accept a 75% kill ratio over time.

The way it works is quite simple. The tiny wasps lay their eggs in the Lily leaf beetle larvae. The wasp eggs need the larvae to hatch and feed, resulting in more wasps and less beetles. The hope is that the parasitoid wasps will naturally spread throughout the area, keeping Lily leaf beetle damage to a minimum. Right now the problems are: 1. this is a slow process-it happens over generations of wasps, not over-night, and 2. If wasps killed 100% of the beetles, there would be no more wasps (no place to lay the eggs). An impatient gardener may not tolerate a 75% kill ratio and may reach for the insecticide which will kill the beetles, the larvae and the beneficial wasps along with anything else that got in the way.

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

After talking to Gail, we realized this system is not yet available to the general public. Parasitoid wasps have been released in all the New England states, but more research is needed before commercialization.  Until then, we remember the notation in our garden journal, “skip the lilies, too many beetles,” and we will continue to look for other exotic bloomers for our summer garden.

Looks like the summer bulb catalogs have begun to arrive. Time for some hot chocolate.