lavender

I'd say leave them alone. Daylilies usually take care of themselves. If the leaves are just yellow they may not be dead but just haven't developed cholophyl yet. If they were under snow or mulch they could be experiencing chlorosis. This will clear up. If the leaves are dead they will wilt and disappear. Why take the chance on cutting back living leaves when it isn't necessary? I just went out to look at mine and the deer have eaten them all down to the ground so I couldn't say what the tips looked like.

I should probably move it as it is under a dogwood. The tree isn't all that big.

There was a gardener up by Christ the King who managed to get cannas to overwinter. You just never know. I lost all of my mums two winters ago and I'd had them for years.

Who knows why animals do anything. Maybe they smell different to the animals than they do to people. Usually they stay away from things that have a strong odor though. Can you really get Easter lilies to come back? Anytime I've tried they freeze over the winter. Asiatic lilies are good though.

The deer eat mine off every year. Also the iris. It doesn't bother them one bit. Neither will the snow. I doubt that it is actually cold enough to freeze them. Some daylilies are actually considered "evergreen" meaning that they stay green all winter so as a whole they are a hardy bunch. No worries on this one.

My hostas are barely out of the ground. I'd try singing to them but they would probably cover their little ears and dive back underground. I divided the Sum and Substance when we had the warm weather. It's a beautiful hosta but sun burns easily. (first pic) Looking forward to the full growth of Empress Wu which is supposed to be the biggest hosta of them all. Got it from the Middle School plant sale. Try it! They have really nice healthy plants. I get most of the plants for the pots on old Pershing parking lot on Brady Street there. Fill in from Ted Lyons supply.

I've been puzzling about that lilac comment for a couple of days now. I had to drop something off at the city building today and darned if the lilacs don't have buds on them. All is now clear. It will be a long time before mine get buds. I think I live in a cold pocket.

You would only dig them up to separate them if they became too crowded. If they eat the daffs they are dead deer. Daffs are poisonous. We had someone come back with the tale that something at the Lake ate off either her monkshood or helebores, I can't remember which. We were duly amazed as both are poisonous and therefore are pretty much critter proof. We later found out that a dead deer was found near her house. Let the critters beware!

I suppose their are other names for it but that is the one I know. I also have a raspberry colored one that has more pointed leaves. It blooms later though.

Buckets or large pots work best. They provide an insulated air layer and don't squish the plant. You can also leave them of for a couple of days without doing any harm. Plastic is indeed harmful. Better than nothing, I guess but I wouldn't use it. I don't cover much anymore. Too much work. I just put my tomatoes and such out later and the ornamentals have to shift for themselves. This is from someone who once got out a ladder and blankets and tried to cover a dogwood tree. Guess I'm getting old. PS Lungwort is blooming too. That is another good spring bloomer even if it isn't a bulb. And is spreads but not aggressively.

Funny, I always find that daffs are sturdier than crocus. We are getting more cold weather, which is a shame as the spring bulbs were the nicer this year than they have been in a long time.

Its darn hard to freeze a flowering spring bulb. They have a sort of "antifreeze" in their cells. The tulips are usually blooming late enough to avoid the spring snows but the crocus often get hit. My daffs are rarely frozen. I have daffs, scilla, grape hyacinths, crocus, primroses and hellebore blooming now. All were under he snow and all were fine when it melted. When a flower or plant freezes the cell walls rupture and there is no coming back for the frozen. By the way, I highly recommend the scilla. They are a "minor bulb" but have a major impact if you want to naturalize bulbs. Why one type of tulip bulb escapes the appetite of critters and another doesn't is a mystery. I suspect that some of the bulbs produce something that makes them unpalatable just as some people are not bitten by mosquitos. It's the same with plants. It is hard to tell what's going to get eaten although some of that is just deer with plant specific appetites. I just don't think that tulips are worth planting unless you are critter free. The deer eat off the flowers if the bulbs manage to escape. I've even tried growing those tiny specimen tulips and they only lasted a few years. They were growing among the scilla so it would have been a very meticulous squirrel to have picked them out. Beware! The daffodils on the walkway are not growing wild and we shoot to kill.

Bon, didn't the blood meal and bone meal attract crtters? I had tulips dug up one year after I put in bone meal. Whatever did it left the bulbs so I'm guessing it was after the bone meal.

Bon's advice about planting them next to the house is good, too. Or a path. Animals seem to dig them up less when they are near something solid.

I'd say stick it in the ground. It will go dormant immediately most likely and the chances of it blooming g next year are slim. If you can get it through another season it will probably bloom the following year. Bulbs build up strength after they bloom. That is why they say to leave the foliage intact. Pot bulbs rarely are able to store what they need to produce the flower bud that is formed in the bulb during the winter. That is why they need a chilling period. So it usually takes one full season in the ground before they will bloom. That said everything eats tulips from squirrels to deer. They eat off the blooms, the leaves and will dig up the bulbs. Stick with daffodils as they are poisonous. Crocus are sometimes eaten but work better than tulips. Most of the minor bulbs like grape hyacinth and squill are mostly carefree. Hyacinths are occasionally eaten off by the curious deer but mostly they aren't bothered. They just get the flowers and nothing eats the bulbs.

You want to plant those bulbs in the fall. They will be available in the local stores then.

Me too! And having a tomato that tastes like a tomato.

It's another growing season. I didn't order seeds this year so have spent the last two weeks visiting 5 or 6 different stores to get seeds. I'll be planting different varieties this year. Some of the ones I usually order aren't available in stores. I have noticed over the past few years that the variety of broccoli and cauliflower that I've planted for years are not doing as well. I think that we have had some climate change as peppers, which never grew at all, are doing better. The cold weather crops that used to flourish are not doing as well. So what are we all planting this year? Got a tomato called Bloody Butcher. Liked the name! I also saved cucumber seed from last year. It was open pollinated and I thought I'd see how that worked. I've never saved cucumber seed before but these did well. I'm not sure what they were but I have it here somewhere.

Get more plants. Hubbies get so annoyed that they build you a greenhouse. Not being able to stop at one, they sometimes build you two. Anything to get those pesky plants out of the house. Plants take up surface area that hubby wants to cover with junk that should have a place in a drawer or cupboard. Dusting........mission impossible.

Friend of mine is going to try to grow plants on chicken wire frames. I don't know what you call it (topiary?) but I'm looking forward to seeing how it works. She says if she can get them to grow they will be going outside the library. If not there is always a dark corner in the basement to hide that stuff.

Peace lilies will die if you let them get very root bound. I really, really didn't want that plant from my friend's husband's funeral. It was depressing. I should have just put it out in the snow.

I like the the greenish/yellow one that turns white. The orchids are growing better since I've been watering them more. Don't believe that business about them liking to grow dry. They are hard to keep watered when they are growing bark that the water runs straight through. Paul did do a wonderful picture of one of our irises a couple of years ago. I think he posted it here. It was a blue one that grows in the garden across from Harley-Davidson. My pictures are never quite in focus even with a camera that is probably smarter than I am.

I love the yellow Phalaenopsis orchids. They are harder to grow than the more common white and pinks and don't bloom as well. They are a smaller more fragile plant but this year I've got quite a few of them blooming. Actually, the yellows die at a great rate. The last is a yellow/ green with a rose center. As the blossoms age they turn white. You have two colored blooms on one plant. Next to last picture is the white version. Fifth is light yellow. Third has an orange lip. Second is a yellow and white orchid. The first is a mini Phal. Its not yellow but it is cute. Sorry, it put the pic in reverse order but I think I have them straight now. The last one had a double flower stem as did the fourth. It was a good year for blooming orchids.

I don't even know where to start on that article. Let me say that commissioner Ron Bergeron's quote is interesting. He says, ""Whether they're fishermen or they're hunters or they're hikers or they're birdwatchers