All of these tazettas are VERY attuned to WATER and SOIL TEMPERATURE.
It is this plasticity that made tazettas ideal plants for indoor growing/forcing for centuries.
Root growth is initiated in the summer with good water – during soggy summers, bulbs can be in nearly full root by late July.
The initiation of foliage growth is a magic combo of water and soil temperature. Any amount of shade that keeps the soil cool will retard foliage growth and flowering. I’ve had the same variety in two different patches with differing soil shade (from zinnias) – the block with zinnia coverage bloomed around a month after the other patch with unprotected soil (just light mulch).
Now, with hot soils continuing into fall hot soil but with drought, the bulbs will sit and wait for rain, even though they’re well rooted. It is the combination that drives or retards flowering.
For gardeners in Zones 8b, 8a, 9a, and warm 7b:
Irrespective of planting in pots or planting in the ground, I strongly suggest planting by late July and definitely early to mid-August.
Water well. The bulbs will root, but will sit there until you really start watering in late August/September.
Though the bulbs can push growth very quickly, I’d rather just nudge them along rather than shock them into high growth mode. You will start watering aggressively in September.
Location/In the Ground (for Pots, see further down):
If you are farther north than the Spanish Moss Belt (i.e., do you have Spanish moss in your live oaks?):
Pick the hottest spot you have. Full sun. Next to concrete, rocks, foundations, sidewalks, anything that retains heat - especially if you’re in Zone 7b or northward. Tazettas are all sun, all the time.
Use just enough mulch to keep the weeds tamped down. But as soon as you get into September, especially north of Georgia, pull off the mulch. You need all the heat you can get to encourage growth starting in September.
Cooler soil will slow leaf initiation. Any real meaningful shade will lengthen the leaves and can retard flowering.
Soil Amendments:
These tazettas are happiest in an alkaline soil, anywhere from pH 7.4 to 7.8 – but 7.8 to 8.0 seems to be preferred. The species these varieties are derived from evolved in a limestone rock environment. Neutral to slightly acidic garden soil is NOT their preferred dirt. Try for at least a pH level of 7.6.
My soil amendments are wood ash (from oaks) and low nutrient compost. I have very sandy clay – it’s kinda terrible. The wood ash changes not only the pH but also the porosity of the clay, and I make sure to include ground bits of charcoal. Compost (I buy a mix with low cow manure additive because my soil is so bad) helps with drainage, adds some nutrients, will help offset the pH if I mixed in too much wood ash (which you won’t – I add by the 5 gallon bucket!), and helps with moisture retention during droughts.
If you do not have wood ash, I strongly suggest wollastonite rather than lime. Not only does it make the soil more alkaline, it has trace elements that tazettas find quite tasty.
Lime is pretty much just for changing pH levels. If you’re not sure what your pH is, you can buy soil pH meters for relatively cheap (just follow the directions when using one!). (Another option is a swimming pool pH testing kit.)
If you wonder why the nag to change the soil pH level – the proper pH can bump the floret diameter size from boring old 35mm to 38-42mm, depending on the cultivar. WELL worth the effort !!!
Depth:
Not quite as deep as you might think. I have had issues with bulbs being too deep – by that I mean following the old guidance of “three times depth.” I plant at four to six inches deep depending on size.
Shallower planting, around four inches, encourages bulb division, which I aim for so as to build up stock. Somewhat deeper planting encourages the bulbs to bulk up rather than divide, which is what I switch to when fattening up bulbs for sale. However, some varieties are much more prone to dividing than others. Those need deeper planting, by an inch or two, than what you’d automatically chose for a planting depth.
Shallower planting also means the bulbs heat up more and as a result grow and flower faster. Deeper soils are cooler, so growth is a bit retarded.
Good drainage is helpful. If you have heavy clay soils, amend deeply but plant more shallowly. This should help avoid summer rot issues from dense wet soils. Similarly, do not let the bulbs get smothered by dense root systems from nearby perennials.
Irrigation:
*The more water the faster they will push.*
Start watering seriously in September. Keep the soil moisture up, and spritz *regularly* (every two-three days).
One grower installed a sprinkler system and watered every other day; with more water his plants responded mightily. I planted overage at a neighbor’s who waters via a sprinkler system every 2-3 days, for about 15 minutes. Those bulbs produced substantially larger plants and bloomed with larger florets than anything they’ve ever done for me. The bulbs in her garden also bloomed a couple of weeks earlier than in my patch. I rely on drip hoses; they are good for keeping soil moisture up at a general level (and are more efficient during drought) but don’t produce the same foliage growth rate as overhead watering.
I think part of it is in general, tazettas are total water hogs. The other part is, with their rudimentary root system, they only get the nutrients that the roots contact which is less than the coverage with a woody perennial. So overhead watering is better – the nutrients are washed down to the roots in a regular, incremental fashion.
My personal plan is to use overhead irrigation for the fall and then switch over to soaker hoses by high season through spring. Tangentially, my neighbor has doggedly worked for years to create rich, slightly acidic soil loved by perennials and woodies. However, we’re on well water drawn from a limestone aquafer, so the water pH is 8.0. My suspicion is the high water pH offsets the more acidic soil pH, to the tazetta’s happiness.
Care During the Winter Cold Snaps
There are two required tasks for winter tazettas during cold events. Tazettas are just fine with dips down to 26°F, assuming they are well watered in advanced so there is as much water/turgor pressure in the stems and leaves as possible. Start watering two days prior to the forecasted cold snap; so if Friday night is going to be down to 26° or lower, start watering on Wednesday. And water again on Thursday and on Friday. Not necessarily a hard soaking, but enough to ensure everybody has wet feet. If it’s forecast to be really low for a number of days in a row, KEEP WATERING. Particularly if the cold front comes with driving winds.
The biggest nemesis is FROST. A dry hard cold, with a dip to 21°F for a few hours, will not bother them (assuming you watered properly). But frost is a totally different issue. Frost, and ice, damages the outer layer of leaves, leaving tiny injuries – which then are HIGHLY susceptible to FUNGUS. The dreaded Red Spot that afflicts amaryllis, rain lilies, daylilies, spiderwort, and who knows what all else will set in on the foliage and wreak all sorts of havoc. Some varieties are much more susceptible to frost/ice damage than others. It is much easier to protect against frost than it is to fight fungus.
I have found frost cloth to be the absolute bomb! Works infinitely better than towels and sheets. I trialed a 1.0mil thickness product from my neighbor; one layer works fine, if I was paranoid I would double it up. I found some products are less flexible than others; for me the more flexible types are much easier to use. One pack of 10x50 feet ran around $25. (Remiawy brand, 1.0 ounce weight, branded as a *Plant Cover*, not a Frost Blanket). For snow events, I put out large black plastic tree pots for what I really want to protect.
If you end up with bent stems, just whip out a pack of thin wood shish kabob skewers and some twist ties. Tie those puppies up! By keeping the stems straight, moisture will flow, and the scapes won’t miss a beat. Leave them bent and you’ll most likely lose them.
For those of you dabbling in hybridizing – By 26°F, you really need to protect your seed pods.
For the spring, just let them do their thing. But the more you water, the longer the foliage may stay green and viable. Some varieties stay greener much longer than others. Though their long leaves become annoying in a garden setting (DO NOT TIE UP OR CUT OFF!), just remember they are continuing to bulk up. And bigger bulbs bloom better!