Hybrid tea roses may be pruned lightly this month and weak growth removed. All roses should be given a complete fertilizer for the gorgeous autumn bloom display.
Daylilies that have finished blooming and large clumps of the iris may be divided and reset this month.
Two easily grown and exotically beautiful bulbous flowers may be planted this month or next.
White Calla Lilies
White calla lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica) are hardy down to 15° degrees Fahrenheit and will come back from the roots below that.
When calls are well-grown, they increase rapidly. They will grow and bloom well in the sun or half shade.
In protected places, barring a severely cold winter, they are evergreen. Callas usually bloom in April, but the dark green, lush foliage is nice the year around.
Callas do best with a lot of humus in the soil and plenty of water.
Fertilization During Growing Season
Planted around the base of a bird bath, where fresh water is put daily, or under a leaky water faucet, they “go to town,” growing and blooming.
Being heavy feeders, they should be fertilized several times during the growing season. I have seen them grow luxuriantly in a tub with the bottom in a pool.
Once having grown the white calla, one always wants the yellow with lovely silver splotched leaves and the smaller growing pink calla.
Both these are a little more susceptible to cold. I mulch or hill them up in the fall just as I do amaryllis.
Blue Lily Of The Nile
Blue lily-of-the Nile (Agapanthus) should be set 3” inches deep in very rich soil well supplied with humus.
It may be composted, well-rotted cow manure, or peat. They, too, are gross feeders.
In appearance, they look much like amaryllis, but the bloom stalk, sometimes three feet high, is topped with an umbel of 20 to 30 bright blue funnel-shaped blooms, eye-catching and long-lasting.
Agapanthus loves water and should not be allowed to dry out in summer. However, where it is colder, these make nice house plants in large pots.
Chances For Delph
We can grow delphinium in the South, although it is usually used as an annual since the hot summer kills it. Either order plants in the fall or plant seeds which will bloom next spring.
It is best to keep the seed in the refrigerator for a week or so, then plant them in boxes, putting them in the garden when they are 2” inches high. Watch for slugs and snails.
Seeds of stock, hollyhock, columbine, dianthus, sweet William (Dianthus barbatus), and foxglove should be planted soon to fortify the perennial border next year. Columbine, in a shady bed, lives for years.
Finest Quick-Growing Salad Greens
Eat your pineapple and have it too! Cut the top from a fresh pineapple, and pot it using good potting soil.
Use it as a house plant this winter, then next spring, plant it in full sun with rich soil in the open, and you may have another pineapple to eat.
One of the finest quick-growing salad greens is a coquette. It likes cold weather and is ready for eating in 6s weeks. The leaves may be mixed with lettuce for a tasty treat.
It is time to order roses and be sure of getting the desired varieties. In planning a rose garden, do not overlook the hybrid-musk class.
Louisiana Creole Easter Lily
Sturdy, black-spot resistant, with the abundant bloom of small roses, very fragrant and colorful all season, they cannot be beaten.
It’s time to plant lilies. They must have a well-drained location. The Louisiana creole Easter lily is, I think, the best for the South.
It has tall spikes of pure white, heavy textured, fragrant flowers. Where well grown, it has 10 to 15 blooms to the stalk.
44659 by K Simpson