Homegrown: Bulbs are hardy survivors

Several years ago, in pursuit of more spring and summer color in one area of my garden where deer made daily visits, I planted several kinds of flowering bulbs — glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa), daffodils (Narcissus), lilies (Lilium), cyclamen, gladiolus, and Peruvian daffodils (Hymenocallis x festalis).

Because I knew that many, but not all, bulbs are safe from browsing deer, this was part experiment, part determination.

Daffodils survived, as expected, and have bloomed reliably every spring. Among the others, all bulbs survived but deer devoured every blossom except the hymenocallis. It has flowered every summer since and now boasts about a dozen stems topped with intriguing blooms something like a trumpet daffodil with a few, very thin, curved outer petals.

This hybrid bulb, closely related to our ubiquitous, pink-flowering naked ladies (Amaryllis belladonna) that adorn many rural roadsides, also has strap-shaped green foliage, but it sprouts in summer rather than winter. In my garden, where it receives only light irrigation, the foliage remains attractively bright green through fall. In complete drought, leaves die back after flowers fade.

Bulb catalogs and on-line forums all suggest that hymenocallis must have moderate moisture, but my experience says otherwise, a bonus in this drought year.

Amaryllis relatives

The amaryllis bulb (Hippeastrum) commonly forced into bloom indoors for winter holiday décor, also withstands drought, but only in dormancy. When planted in the ground for summer flowering, it requires nearly constant moisture.

Other amaryllis relatives, however, are valuable for their tolerance of dry summers.

Spider lilies (Lycoris) behave much like naked ladies, losing their leaves in summer before blooming on leafless stalks. Clusters of very slim, spidery-looking petals are yellow, red, white, pink, or lilac.

Somewhat more robust than spider lilies, similar nerines bloom later in the season after enduring a completely dry summer. Early rains provide the only moisture needed. N. bowdenii blossoms develop deep pink flower clusters atop foot-high stems in late fall to early winter.

Summer snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum), mistakenly named since they bloom in fall and winter, develop foliage clumps and flower stems like daffodils, but they're topped with clusters of dangling white bells. Planted in light shade, these little bulbs get by with little or no summer water.

Most Bay Area and North Coast gardeners are familiar with easy-going Lily-of-the-Nile (Agapanthus), widely planted for its drought tolerance as much as for clumps of evergreen, strap-like foliage and purple or white flower heads. Nurseries carry many cultivars in white and a wide range of purple hues, including dwarf forms favored for less rampant expansion than the other species.

Other water-savers

Many lily and iris family plants also withstand minimal irrigation in summer — even none at all if they're planted in afternoon shade. When a friend once told me that she simply threw extra iris rhizomes over the fence into an open area behind her rural home and was astonished that they bloomed with no care at all, I tried it once myself. They pleasantly surprised me, probably because of their afternoon shade.

Iris family montbretia (Crocosmia) from South Africa are often avoided in the garden because of their tendency to spread easily. With restricted irrigation, their red, yellow or orange blooms remain showy but plants spread slowly. In severe drought, their bloom season is shortened and foliage browns until rains resume.

Though they may be tough enough to bloom and survive in drought conditions, nearly all irises and lilies prefer regular care — division when crowded, regular applications of compost and summer water. Our local native lilies will flower and increase their numbers in minimally moist conditions, but they, too, thrive best with regular moisture.

Less fussy lily relative Scilla peruviana blooms each year in spring with heavy purple clusters despite little or no summer moisture, though its foliage looks unkempt and rather desiccated after flowers fade.

Mediterranean bulbs

Not all bulbs native to dry Mediterranean regions are well represented in our gardens or even stocked in our nurseries and garden centers; however, they are sold by mail-order and can be found with a little sleuthing on the Internet.

Selections of grape hyacinth (Muscari), crocus, cyclamen, and tulip bulbs may be found locally; but Sternbergia, asphodel (Asphodeline), Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum), and a host of exotic iris species usually must be mail-ordered.

The main concern planting them in our microclimates is providing fast-draining soil to prevent rot during our normally wet winters.

Rosemary McCreary, a Sonoma County gardener, gardening teacher, and author of Tabletop Gardens, writes the monthly Homegrown column for The Press Democrat. Write to her at P.O. Box 910, Santa Rosa, 95402.