Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Moving daffodils, lilacs, tomotoes
John Arbogast
Landscape consultant John Arbogast answers your questions every Thursday. Send questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to:
Dear John
5102 Greenfield St. SW
Roanoke, Va. 24018
Or send an e-mail. Answers will be given only in this column. Please don't send pictures or samples.
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Q: We recently moved into an older home here in Kansas and have daffodils that have sent out almost all of their foliage, but have not yet set any buds. I MUST move these bulbs within the next week or they will be covered by the deck we are having built. Is there any way to move them at this time of year without injuring them too much? I realize that we probably won’t have flowers this year, but I do hope the plants can be saved. Please advise.
A: You’re in luck to have daffodils to move. They are the most gardener-friendly of all the spring flowering bulbs in this country. Daffodils can be dug with roots and foliage and replanted in new locations during the spring. You don't have to plant the bulbs with in a temporary garden spot from which they must be redug when their leaves turn yellow or brown and then dried like storage onions for fall replanting, which is the recommended procedure for most other spring flowering bulbs.
I don’t know about your soil in Kansas, but in Virginia daffodil bulbs must be planted at least 6 inches deep. It is helpful with our hard soils to water the soil to be dug the day before digging. Your goal will be to dig the daffodils with all roots and some soil attached to the bottom of each bulb without damaging the foliage.
I’d suggest using a sturdy “digging fork” that can be stepped on to loosen the soil on all sides of the daffodils in order to lift the bulbs with roots and foliage intact.
Once you have dug the daffodils out of the ground, carefully carry them to their new places and replant them using a bulb planter to make deep, round holes that will accommodate each bulb with roots and support the foliage. No fertilizer or other soil amendments should be needed.
If you have many daffodils to move, cover the plants with moistened newspaper in a shady area following digging to prevent drying of bulb roots or foliage.
Q: I will be moving to Virginia in the later spring. I love lilacs and have many varieties. Do they grow well in Roanoke? I have grown the famous Rochester lilac, a splendid white. Thanks, Marie in Marion
A: Yes, lilacs do well in Roanoke. However, cooperation from nature and proper pruning are crucial to creating blooms every spring.
As you most likely know, lilacs need a sunny location. But with our variable late winter and spring weather, lilac flowers are often forced open early by mild temperatures -- only to be killed or damaged by late frost.
Pruning lilacs here seems to create the best blooms. Lilacs will make flowers most readily on young branches. Prune the lilac clump every spring after blooming with a sharp saw to eliminate the oldest and stoutest lilac shoots.
Q: Last year, I planted several tomatoes in a former dog kennel at the foot of my back yard hill, which is bordered by some trees. The spot itself is mostly sunny, and the soil is good. However, some kind of blight attacked the tomato plants early and the plants died well before fall frost. What did I do wrong and what should I do this year?
A: This spring, select a different location for planting that has good air movement rather than the foot of a hill bordered by trees. Select sturdy and disease-resistant varieties and space them out when planting, again to allow for good air circulation among the plants and penetration of ample sunshine.
Place your tomato transplants deeply in bowl-like holes so that watering will fill each bowl at the base of each plant. That's better than overhead watering, which makes the leaves, mulch and everything else in the garden wet for long periods of time.
Take soil tests now from where you expect to develop your tomato patch and add lime or sulfur as recommended to modify the soil pH as needed. These soil correctors take time to modify soil chemistry. Do it now.
