Park Seed Garden Journal

One of the coolest things about most bulbs, especially Daffodil and species Tulip Bulbs, is that they tend to be very low-maintenance.  Sometimes, though, people forget just how low-maintenance they are and try to do too much with them.  Because we’re in the South here in Greenwood, South Carolina, our Daffodils are pretty much done blooming around here.  With Tulips and Daffodils, what you do with the plants just after they bloom can make all the difference for next year’s blooms, so here are a few tips for spring bulb care.

Cut the flowers off once they start to fade, before they start to produce seed.  You wouldn’t do wrong to cut the flowers early enough to use them as decoration or as a gift (just cut the stem low).  This is so the plant uses the energy that it would use making seeds to build up its bulb, which means more, higher-quality blooms next year. 

Do not, however, cut any of the leaves off.  Those will spend the next several weeks producing food for the bulb.  Think of it like those leaves are next year’s flowers.  The leaves may not be the most beautiful plants (I personally like them, but that may just be me), but cutting them early could very well kill the entire plant.  I had a neighbor whose son accidentally mowed a strip through his daffodil patch just before the leaves started to turn yellow.  The next year he had a nice path through the patch with not a bloom to be seen.  Let the leaves be until they turn completely yellow, which is the sign that they’ve produced enough food to sustain the bulb.

You can set annuals out among the plants to disguise the yellowing leaves.  However, choose something that requires very little watering, such as marigolds.  If you are watering plants above the bulbs through the summer, the ground will stay moist.  Tulip and Daffodil bulbs don’t like very moist conditions, as they can rot or just weaken, meaning fewer good blooms next season.  The best way to deal with the unsightly yellowing leaves, though, is to choose a slightly out-of-the-way area for planting your Tulips and Daffodils.  This way the foliage will be less noticeable later in the season.  When the flowers are in bloom, though, they will do plenty to draw attention to themselves.

Keep in mind that this process may be somewhat different when growing hybrid Tulips.  While Hybrid Tulips have many advantages and are far more popular than species tulips, they do not survive from season to season as well as species Tulips do, and many gardeners grow them as annuals.  Cutting the flowers and letting the foliage yellow will maximize the second-year performance of hybrid tulips, but it is rare to get the same level of performance in the second flowering year from hybrids as in the first year, and generally need to be replaced within a few years of planting, especially in the South.

Once you've got your tiny tomato plants sprouted from seed, it's time to move them into the light.  You'll want to put your seedlings in the strongest light you have available.  For many gardeners this means a sunny window, which will work.  Even better is a strong florescent light or grow light that can be placed just a few inches above the seedlings (an adjustable grow light system can help a lot in this).  The closer and more powerful the light is, the less the light will be diffused, which will mean your tomato plants will grow stockier and not get leggy (tall and spindly).  If you don't have powerful enough light and the plants do get leggy, it's not the end of the world.  Tomato plants have the interesting ability to grow roots along the main stem, which means that even a plant that's too tall to be stable when you transplant it can just be buried deeper. 

When placing your tomatoes in the light, keep in mind that you don't want the light so close that heat from it burns the plants, and it needs to give room for air to circulate over the seedlings (keep them protected from chilly drafts, though).  Around 14-16 hours of this light a day is optimal.  Some gardeners recommend longer, as much as 20 or even 24 hours a day of strong light.  I've never found there to be any improvement with more than 16 hours of light, and in some cases it can even be harmful.  Plus, conserving electricity is a concern for pretty much everyone these days.  If you're growing your seedlings with a directional light source (a window, a smaller light or one that isn't directly above the plants, etc), be sure to change the orientation of your seedlings to the light.  When I'm growing seedlings in a window, I try to turn them around once a day, so that they don't bend over trying to grow toward the light.

It amazes me how often I get this question.  It's an argument that I remember best from elementary school science classes, but it made its way all the way to the Supreme Court in 1893 (Nix v. Hedden).  The highest court in the land gave essentially the same answer that I will here: a tomato is both a fruit and a vegetable.   

The argument comes from the fact that the term "fruit" has two different meanings.  In the botanical sense, a fruit is the fleshy ovary of a flowering plant.  In the culinary sense, though, "fruit" generally refers to any sweet fleshy edible plant part (usually the part around the seeds).  A culinary vegetable, on the other hand, refers to a savory or non-sweet edible plant part other than nuts or seeds ("vegetable" is not really used in botany).  So, a tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but it isn't really sweet enough to be considered a culinary fruit, so it is, in the food sense, a vegetable. 

This isn't that uncommon: many of the vegetables that you (hopefully) eat all the time are also fruits.  Squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, and avocados are all fruits that double as vegetables.  With so many fruits moonlighting as veggies, I'm really not sure why the argument is almost always limited to tomatoes.  So, what should you call a tomato?  I for one use both terms, depending on the context.  If I'm talking about the tomatoes in reference to the tomato plant, I call it the fruit (as in "cherry tomato plants produce a lot of fruit").  Once it's off the vine and in my kitchen, though, it's a vegetable. 

Of course, the issue gets much more complicated if you want to start talking about accessory fruits, nuts, legumes, and seeds.  That,  however, is a post for a different day.

In college I learned that I love to cook, but that fresh herbs are painfully expensive at the grocer store.  So, one of the first things that I ever grew from seed was a small pot full of herbs.  It's been long enough ago that I'm not sure what all was in that container, but I do remember Basil Genovese and garlic chives, two of the easiest herbs of all to grow in containers.  Both of which are still regulars in my container herb gardens, along with all of these easy to grow herbs.

Cilantro – For Mexican cuisine, Cilantro is a must.  It is the perfect herb to compliment acidic foods, such as lime and tomato.  It is also called Coriander, and it is both a spice and an herb in one plant.  Use the leaves fresh, dried, or frozen as the herb Cilantro, and, once it goes to seed, dry the seeds (technically tiny fruit, but I digress) in the sun and grind them fresh as the spice Coriander.  Cilantro Delfino is one of the easiest varieties to grow, as it grows quickly, produces lots of leaves, and is slow to bolt, which means that it will produce delicious cilantro for longer, which means more batches of fresh salsa straight from the garden.

Lemon Grass – As Cilantro is a must for Mexican food, Lemon Grass is necessary for many Asian dishes.  The leaves and stems are delicious fresh or dried, and impart a distinct lemony taste to whatever they're
used in that just can't be replicated.  Lemon Grass is great in soups, and makes for a unique and wonderful addition to hot teas.

Red-Leafed Basil – This dark basil brings a more intense, spicier flavor to the kitchen than most other basils.  It goes wonderfully with artichoke hearts, or in just about anything with vinegar.  Crush these leaves into hot vinegar or olive oil to make an amazing foundation for salad dressings, or to lend a unique, subtle flavor to anything sautéed in the oil.  It's also a beautiful plant, and our Red Rubin Basil is one of the best, and easiest to grow, varieties around.