Q. My husband and I got married in 1975. We didn’t have much money, so a neighbor offered to let us use the flowers from his garden for decoration.
The flowers were beautiful pink amaryllis. The wedding was in August, so they were in full bloom. A few weeks later, our maid of honor, knowing how much we loved the flowers, brought us a bag full of bulbs that her mother had culled from her garden.
We have been dragging these bulbs around with us for 45 years! They have been planted at every home we’ve ever lived in. Occasionally we have to thin them out and we share them with friends and neighbors. We have never fertilized them.
Every August when they begin to bloom, we know our anniversary is coming. We call them our “wedding flowers.”
I’ve noticed the same or similar flowers growing all along the coastal regions in California, but they are much darker pink than ours and look healthier. We live in San Jose and ours are a pale pink.
There are also many bulbs that leaf out, but never produce a flower. Is there something in the salt air that makes the pink so vibrant near the coast? Is it possible that ours are lacking some nutrients? We have also considered that our flowers are simply a different type.
What can you tell me about these beautiful naked ladies?
Karen Thompson, San Jose
A. What a sweet story and romantic notion.
There are a few varieties of Amaryllis Belladonna, popularly known as naked ladies. I believe all them originated in South Africa, which has the same Mediterranean climate we enjoy.
Naked ladies get their name because the beautiful thick foliage they produce dries up and falls away, leaving the emerging blooms naked on the stem.
The naked ladies are easy to grow, but gardeners can struggle with getting the plants to bloom every year. In their native habitat, outside of gardens, they bloom only after a wildfire, which occurs every five to 40 years. Researchers believe the fire removes plants that are shading the belladonnas and robbing them of the sun they need to bloom.
Make sure your plants are in a nice sunny spot. They really don’t care for much shade.
The vibrancy of the blooms you see along the coast might be related to the soil and conditions, or it might be a different variety of belladonna. While the plants thrive on benign neglect — they don’t require supplemental water, except in particularly dry winters, and they don’t need pruning — they do need a little fertilizer in the fall.
Each year’s bloom improves the longer they are left undisturbed in the soil. If you feel the need to divide the plants, do so in September as they enter dormancy, but do it rarely.
Q. I have a raised bed that is about 4 feet by 8 feet, where I used to grow tomatoes.
The crop two years ago didn’t do well, so I only planted a few sunflowers there this year. They did marginally OK. About three weeks ago, I planted what I hoped would be a cover crop of red clover to help rejuvenate the soil.
The clover sprouted and was doing nicely. Late last week I realized that something had eaten all the leaves. We live in a suburban development and don’t have deer or rabbits. I would like to know what might have eaten the clover so I can protect the seedlings in hopes that they will recover.
We do have squirrels, birds and possibly mice or rats in the yard. Or maybe it was insects? What are your thoughts?
Linda, Livermore
A. The most likely culprits are snails, slugs or earwigs. I lean heavily in the direction of earwigs.
They are small and voracious and can wipe out a crop before you are even aware they are there. If that sounds like the voice of experience, it is.
Two years ago I bought my summer garden seedlings and had them sitting in a nice shady spot in my yard for two days, with plans to plant them that weekend. By then, the earwigs had eaten half my tomato and pepper plants, damaged the ones that weren’t devoured, and eaten all my cucumber seedlings.
You can create earwig traps by rolling up a newspaper and leaving it in the garden overnight. In the morning, take the paper to your green bin and shake it out. I’ve been dead serious about protecting my plants since then so I go with Sluggo Plus. It doesn’t harm pets, and it will take care of the snails, slugs and earwigs.
Congratulations, by the way, on planting a cover crop. You still have time to reseed, and it will do wonders in restoring the vitality of your soil. You might want to toss in some legumes as well. You get twice the bang from a mixed cover crop.
Have a question for Joan?
Use this form to submit questions. Photos should be mailed separately to jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com.
