It is a tough road for plants wintering in a cool room from November to March. One needs insecticidal soap spray, sticky traps, reduced watering and vigilance to keep the indoor garden going. If I winter over tropical butterfly weeds, there is an ongoing battle with aphids. And some plants, depressive by nature, just give up and wither thinking spring will never come.
Yet some plants will put up a bloom or two. Here is one of them- Nicotiana “Crimson Bedder”, a tender perennial I bought from Annie’s Annuals in California. It blooms non stop from spring to freeze and spreads gently by wandering roots. It overwinters very well and I consider it an exemplary plant.
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A Surprise from the 2023 Plant Delights mail order catalogue.
I was astounded to see a new race of Lycoris, or “Surprise Lily” offered to Northern gardeners. Lycoris, an amaryllis relative, is a summer blooming bulb, common in Southern gardens, where it appears overnight in the heat of late July and early August. One day there is empty earth, the next there are lilies under the dogwoods, around the mailboxes, between the hostas.
I have ordered four bulbs to plant in the Mary Headstone flower bed at the Goffstown Historical Society Garden in Goffstown, NH.
They are a variety of Lycoris sprengeri , discovered in China. The breeder named them “Pink Floyd”, and they a a bright pink. Unfortunately I do not have a photo, copyright law being what it is, but one can view them on the Plant Delights website.
Gardening On Granite 