Summer’s coming to an end and it’s time to get ready for fall planting season in your San Diego garden.
Fall Blooming Bulbs
If you plant these bulbs my mid-September, you have a good chance of seeing blooms in just a few weeks. Water them well when planting, but lightly afterwards. They’ll be dormant next summer and will want to stay fairly dry during that time to avoid rot. Like many other bulbs, these are poisonous if eaten by people or pets, and some of the plants are too.
- Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) – if planted in late September or even in October, they will bloom by Thanksgiving. The orange-red stigmas on these lilac flowers are the source of saffron. You can harvest and dry the stigmas to use in cooking.
- Crinodonna (Amarcrinum) – This is a cross between Amaryllis belladonna and a Crinum species. It will give you pink blooms on 2 to 3-foot bare stems in late summer into fall. The leaves are mostly evergreen.
- Autumn crocus (Colchicum) – Varieties of this bulb produce flowers in white, pink and purple about 6 to 12 inches high in the fall. They’ll bloom the same year you plant them and can even bloom without soil.
- Spider lily (Lycoris) – This striking bulb goes by many other names and comes in white, yellow, red and pink. It’s not quite as predictable as the other fall-blooming bulbs, so might not flower its first year.
- Belladonna lily (Amaryllis belladonna) – These are also fall bloomers and have the common name naked ladies because the 4-12 scented, pink flowers emerge on 2-3 foot stems with no leaves. The foliage will grow after the plant flowers and die back at the end of spring. Belladonna lily needs to be planted when dormant with the pointed tip of the bulb just above the soil. I’m not sure that planted now, they will bloom this fall, but they are an easy, beautiful addition to your San Diego garden.
Plant Native Wildflowers in Your San Diego Garden
Order wildflower seeds so you are ready to plant them when our rainy season starts. (Fingers crossed we actually have a rainy season.) If you choose native wildflowers, they would be a wonderful addition to the pollinator garden mentioned below. You can use wildflowers to fill gaps in your garden beds, add color to dormant vegetable or flower beds, or give them their own space in your yard.
You can find all-native wildflower mixes at the Theodore Payne Foundation, www.theodorepayne.org.
Create a Pollinator Garden
Over three quarters of the world’s flowering plants and more than one-third of U.S. crops depend on pollinators. Without pollinators, we wouldn’t have many of our favorite fruits, nuts and vegetables. Pollinator populations, like honeybees, native bees, bats and butterflies are declining.
You can help stop the loss of pollinators by making your San Diego garden a place for them to feed and breed. For ideas on how to make your garden into a pollinator habitat garden, go to the University of California’s article How to Attract and Maintain Pollinators in Your Garden.
San Diego Garden Tips Source
A lot of information for San Diego Garden Tips comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.