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drwtj10

trying to simplify: plant 'em and leave 'em?

drwtj10
9 years ago

I started growing bulbs almost by accident about 14 years ago. I have Freesias, two varieties of Narcissus (one has large bulbs, the other small ones), red spider lilies, and day lilies. There are also agapanthus and pink and blue iris.

All of these survive year-round in New Orleans, despite my benign neglect, and they multiply every year. Narcissus in particular will completely fill any size pot with bulbs in a couple of years (at which point they stop blooming), and will crowd out other bulbs in a garden. They have crowded out the day lilies in a border around a large sugar kettle in the yard, and digging through just a two-foot section of the border to thin them netted a couple of dozen excess Narcissus bulbs of the larger variety. I don't have time to dig up the rest! The irises are a recent acquisition, but also seem to be enthusiastically trying to take over the garden from a rather small initial planting.

I do love it when they are in bloom. However, due to work (I am a high school physics teacher), health, and caring for an ailing spouse, I no longer have the time to dig up, divide, repot, replant or find loving homes for continually increasing numbers of bulbs/tubers/rhizomes. Mind you, I actually feel guilty about this!

I'd love to be able to just stick them in the ground and leave them. I'm not sure if I'm just venting, or if I actually expect a helpful suggestion from the forum. Some strategy to have them all coexist peacefully in the garden without requiring my intervention?

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