This summer, members of the Birds & Blooms staff were given the opportunity to test out a variety of plants. Below, Deb Mulvey, copy chief, shares her experience with cannas. Be sure to check out more staff reviews here: coleus & petunias, blue spike and full sun container gardening

Every year I fantasize about making some of the cool plant markers (like the one above) we’ve featured in Birds & Blooms.  I always think I’ll remember what I planted, and where, but I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast. In the garden, I need visual cues. But this year, I didn’t need plant markers to remember where I’d planted five fat, healthy Tropicanna canna bulbs. All I had to do was look for the holes.

With five bulbs to play with, I decided to try a variety of locations so I’d know where these lovely tropicals would best thrive next year. Two went into moderate shade in the moist, rich soil of an established garden bed, two more to dappled shade under an evergreen, and the last one into my slam-dunk foolproof spot—a big planter right in the sun, in fresh potting soil fortified with homemade compost.

Friends, it was not to be.

The bulbs under the evergreen were the first to disappear. That wasn’t a huge surprise—critters had dug up the daffodils and tulips I’d planted there a couple years before, too. The bulbs in the garden were next to go. The critters hauled away one bulb, but left the second behind; I’d planted it behind a thorny rose, so I assumed that must have provided some protection. The next day, I found that bulb on the ground, gnawed but with its growing shoots still intact. I replanted it, moving it as close to the rose as possible. The next morning? Another hole, another casualty. About a week later, the critters found the canna in the big planter, too.

Poor little cannas. They never even had a chance.

Have you ever had trouble with critters in your garden?

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This summer, members of the Birds & Blooms staff were given the opportunity to test out a variety of plants. Below, Alysse Gear, copy editor, shares her experience with Blue Spike. Be sure to check out another staff review about coleus and petunias here.

I’m sometimes good at keeping things alive, like flowers in vases, but a gardener I am not. (Really though, if you trim your blossoms’ stems with a serrated knife instead of scissors, they last noticeably longer! But I digress.)

This summer has been my first in my downtown Milwaukee apartment. The nearest open land is a public park, so I adore my balcony sanctuary, my place where I can create a little world of green. Alongside a flourishing mint plant and a giant, mysterious succulent that I received for a housewarming gift, I potted my blue spike in the middle of a pretty little painted terracotta pot. A thyme plant and forget-me-not had quickly succumbed to my increasingly brown thumb, so I needed something hardy to keep my gardening dreams alive.

Halfway through the season, I flanked the spike with two green onions that I cut and ate over and over again. (Another tip, which I found here on Pinterest:  you can plant your “used” green onions and they’ll grow again.) My onion and spike became best buddies, and the two enjoyed my partial sun all summer long. They gracefully weathered a terrible drought—even when I was gone for long weekends. I’d just water them when I got back on Sunday as they drooped, and the next day their green shades were just as bright. And they soaked up the rain the few times it came.

I don’t know yet if my ever-greener thumb will work on some flowers next season (which would pair beautifully with my spike) but I’m willing to give it a try. And I would definitely pick up another plant of this type, because then at least I’ll know I have a lovely plant I can’t kill. I try to be environmentally “green,” and in fact it’s my favorite color. Let’s hope I can become a gardener too!

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