Scilla in a Sea of Star of Bethlehem

Scilla awash in Star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum umbellatum, foliage.

Photo taken 4/8/09.

Wisteria

The wisteria vines are just starting to bloom along the central arbor in the Tame Garden. These are original plants; that is, these are the actual vines that Gene planted. Mother's Day or the following weekend may be good times to visit, depending on how the weather affects the blooms. The number of blooms vary each season and I'm still trying to figure out the factors. I think milder winters and good spring rains produce more blooms.

On the Star of Bethlehem front, I spent my time today cleaning just one end of the culinary herb bed of these bulbs so I could plant basil seed. Carol continued digging the bulbs out of the wisteria roots and from the rocks lining the inside of the arbor. These are just skirmishes in the 80-year war.

The 80 year war

In the comments, Carol asked if Gene planted the Star of Bethlehem. Up until last weekend, I thought some gardener planted it in the last 30 years while the garden was tended. I was wrong.

Janet Cook, one of our tour guides and cook extraordinaire in name and deed, shared with me her memories of volunteering in the garden in the mid-70s. The garden had essentially been neglected for almost 50 years. It was overgrown with weeds and brambles. The stone edgings around the beds were found buried in the soil. Janet said, "Oh, how I hated the Star of Bethlehem even then." So this leads to the conclusion that it was very likely planted by Gene.

Now I know I am fighting an invasive bulb that has had its own way for 80 years. Puts the battle into perspective! I am definitely the underdog now, but am determined to win this war.

What do these pictures have in common?

The bearded irises are just starting to bloom.















The shade garden in bed 18 is starting to fill out.















Twin-leaf leaves (and that is not redundant) have appeared. They look like they are ready to flutter away or adorn a nicely wrapped Mother's Day gift.

So what do these pictures have in common other than they were all taken today in the Tame Garden at the Gene Stratton-Porter Historic site?

The beautiful flower of the Star of Bethlehem is in each of them. The iris photo best illustrated the condition of the garden today. The S. of B. are blooming like crazy while the foliage is starting to yellow and die. That means the prime digging time is over and soon no one will know that a few inches beneath the soil lies millions of tiny bulbs, gulping up oxygen in the soil, taking room, competing with the garden plants.

Garden Work Day

The garden volunteers are called Garden Porters and yesterday was our first work day of the season. For most, it was the first hands-on encounter with the Star of Bethlehem invaders. They were shocked at the extent of the problem even through they knew there was an issue. The bulbs are so bad, there is no way to plant seeds or even plants in the spring.

Our goal was to renovate the large round bed (focal point) of the lower west garden. Twelve hard-working experienced gardeners working full-tilt for over three hours managed to remove plants and the SoB bulbs from only half of the bed. We did replant Lady's Mantle around the edge. The plants removed are ensconced in the nursery bed plus two wheelbarrows.

Guess what I'm working on next week?

Updates

Confirmed.
It was a four-toed salamander found on Boy Scout Island last week.

Wildflowers:
It's as if the wildflowers pictured in this post went into hibernation for the ten days of freezing temps and snow, as a walk around the site today looked eerily similar to the post. The anemone, bloodroot, toothwort, trout lilies, Dutchmen's breeches and marsh marigolds are in bloom while the trillium, mayapples, twin-leaf are just emerging.

Garden:
The Star of Bethlehem bulbs are trying to suck the joy out my spring gardening, but I'm fighting back, hauling wheelbarrows full of the boogers out of the garden. I get much joy spotting the tender shoots of the perennials emerge in the spring, but it is hard to see in the beds overrun with SoB foliage. The foliage tends to diminish the spring flowers in bloom, but another problem is that these plants are scattered among the 35 beds. I'm trying to consolidate the spring flowers into a few beds so they put on more of a show.

Star of Bethlehem

Star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum umbellatum, is a bulb with a simple five-pointed white flower, but not everything that is beautiful belongs in the garden. It is listed as an invasive species in Indiana and it sure has invaded the Tame Garden at GSP as seen in this partial view of the garden. That is NOT grass; it is SoB foliage.
It propagates through the dispersion of numerous bulblets surrounding a larger bulb, some smaller than a grain of rice. Cultivation in the Tame Garden has dispersed these bulblets throughout the beds.

Research by several land grant colleges has shown that herbicides are not effective, because of its waxy foliage. The recommendation to remove these bulbs from the garden, which crowd out other spring flowers, is total replacement of the soil, which is not a viable option for us as we do not have the staff and funding required. So in the spring of 2006, we tried to dig up the bulbs in the west arbor bed. (It took two weeks of intensive labor.)
This spring showed a marked reduction in the bulbs, although numerous tiny bulbs sprouted. We are digging these up to see if we can eradicate this invasive bulb through our labors.