Curcumas' spring blooms a nice surprise

Q: This lovely volunteer flower comes up each spring just outside our breakfast nook. My husband and I enjoy it for the few weeks that it lasts. We have no idea what this is, but would like to know.

A: This nice curcuma bloom is not your normal volunteer flower. It is in the ginger family and is a very desirable tropical plant for the garden.

There are a couple of kinds of curcumas that folks grow in the Gainesville area. One is Curcuma elata. It has striking blooms made up of pink bracts with yellow flowers in between. The Curcuma's eight- to 12-inch bloom appears before the leaves in the spring, so that must be what you have. The flower is followed by huge tropical-looking leaves that resemble the leaves of a canna lily - except with a little texture to them.

The other is called hidden curcuma (Curcuma petiolata). It blooms later in the summer and its blooms are hidden in the large tropical leaves of the plant.

Both of these curcumas will go dormant in the winter. In fact, you may even forget that you have them, until you see the big pink bloom or the leaves emerge from the mulch.

Like most gingers, they can be propagated by division. Curcuma gingers are tropical looking plants that can stand up to our winter and perform well in the shade. What a nice surprise to find outside the breakfast nook window.

Q: I had planted six dwarf azaleas in my side yard in Newberry around mid-April. I used potting soil and cypress mulch and have watered them every three days by hand.

All six plants, each three-gallon size from a local nursery, were flowering and budding just fine.

Now, a couple weeks into May, three of the six plants appear almost dead, with new growth withering and leaves drying up and falling off.

These Red Ruffle, semi-dwarf variety all seem to be dying very quickly. Could this be a fungus, insect or the heat and drought here?

A: It is a good possibility that drought is the reason for the death of these plants. The potting soil that azaleas generally come in is made up of peat moss and other organics. This type of soil can dry out quickly and it is hard to keep moist, unless you are watering almost every day. Red ruffles and most other azaleas will struggle in full sun conditions unless they are well watered or well established. Are your plants getting any break from the sun?

Also if the plants were over-watered, the roots could be rotting away. If the roots are suffering from rot, they will not pull water from the soil, and the result will be withering leaves.

But with the drought conditions we have been experiencing, I suspect that the cause of the problems you are seeing is from a lack of water. Also, new research from the University of Florida is showing that when we mulch deeply (3-4 inches) over the root ball of a newly planted tree or shrub, the mulch can intercept the water meant for the roots of the plants.

Pull back the mulch and see how moist the soil is on the root ball of the plants. For landscape plants, you should be able to feel moisture in the soil about 2 inches deep. Also when you place potting soil into the planting hole you might be creating problems. UF/IFAS recommendations say to use the native soil to fill in around the plant in the hole. The potting soil can break down quickly, which can lead to air pockets and drying out of the roots.

Increase the frequency and the amount of your hand watering to help the other plants make it through the summer.

Wendy Wilber is environmental horticulture agent for Alachua County IFAS Extension Service. Contact her via e-mail at WLWilber@ifas.ufl.edu.