Sticky pots, or should I say bags!

[Jangchub]

I was perfectly minding my own business when I was doing some shopping at the China supporting crap hole and I saw this woman with a cart loaded with Asian lily bulbs. Originally 8 dollars, now SEVENTY FIVE CENTS! I ran out there to the garden center, the knee all of a sudden didn't hurt as much, and I saw this throng of grabbers and got in there and bought about ten bags of things, Asian lilies, liatris, Louisiana iris, etc. Okay, actually much more than ten bags, but in case my husband is lurking we'll say ten...

Anyway, now that I have them where am I ever going to plant them? I have a garden which encompasses a half acre and I have totally run out of room; but when I get home tomorrow from my MRI I plan to get the giant umbrella out which has a place on my garden cart (put there by using tie wraps and some PVC pipe), put Mika Bird (our Hahn's Macaw) into her outside cage, hang her on her traveling shepherd's hook, and take out whatever is left of a teeny piece of St. Augustine which is in the sun and plant my tubers and bulbs.

Every year I swear I am not going to put anything new in. Every year I put new things in. I surrender.

I am a plantaholic and my life has become unmanageable. I believe I can and will be restored to sanity. I have turned my will over to however my knee feels on the day I want to garden. I will take a moral inventory of all the money I've spent and didn't tell Mark. I will share it with someone other than Mark.

I'm not ready for the rest, but I've done all 12 many times, at different levels of sobriety, and have stayed sober for 24 years~

Carry on.

said with excruciating love of gardening and fellow garden addicts, Victoria

[Ann]

Jangchub expounded:

I have surrendered, also. The one saving grace is that I'm now (again!) out in other people's gardens, too, getting paid for my addiction.

It's the best addiction one can have, I do believe.

Absolutely. We haven't discussed sticky pots for quite a while! I haven't made my pilgrimage to Hillbilly Acres over in Scituate where I get into the most trouble. It's coming.....

[Cheryl Isaak]

And what gardener here wouldn't do the same. The only reason I wouldn't is the ground is frozen!

C

[Jangchub]

Ah the days when I lived in the tundra! Around here we are soon entering the "too late" category of planting. Summer blooming bulbs, tubers, corms and rhizomes are easy to plant even in the heat, but that's about it.

We missed the harsh storms the other night, but not too far from us houses were blowing Dorothy about. I love everything about Austin, but I freak out every spring with the tornado warnings (which means a tornado was spotted).

I wouldn't move back up to New York unless someone paid me a lot of money.

V

[Ann]

Cheryl Isaak expounded:

Still? You must be way up there in Cow Hampshire

[Cheryl Isaak]

Nah - cold, but not frozen.

BUT - a few years back, one of the big box stores had those boxes of plants out in November for cheap money and if hadn't just snowed, I'd have loaded up. There were lots of lilies in the assortment and I've lost all of mine to those damned red beetles. C

[Jangchub]

What red beetles? The Japanese types? Shoot. I never grow Asian lillies. Even if they are eaten I only spent (put price here so I don't incriminate myself) and they are aleady in the ground, greening up and have growth from just last Saturday.

[Ann]

Jangchub expounded:

No, Vic, we have these wonderful fingernail polish red lily beetles some idiot brought into Wellesley, Mass back in 1994 and have spread exponentially since. I lost a wonderful species lily collection to them (I don't use chemicals, and was working fulltime during the invasion, I didn't have the time to keep up with the little feces covered larvae). So far I still have them, they'll also eat hosta (not to the point of death, thankfully) and fritillarias.

[Jangchub]

Oh Hostas...I miss Hostas. They are eaten to the nub down here with the snails and slugs. Also, in summer they melt no matter how much water I gave them. It was ridiculous, so I stopped growing them. I even tried them in huge containers.

v

[Cheryl Isaak]

Hi V

I was glad Ann answered you about the beetles - hopefully they won't like it by you. A friend just grows lilies as annuals now and considers anything that makes a second season a bonus.

I'm just getting into hosta and find crushed shells to work as a deterrent. But I can't help you with the heat.

[Jangchub]

You heard the expression that everything is bigger in Texas, right? Well, our snails and slugs are on steroids. Huge, thub sized slugs, and snails. So, the combination of heat and stress caused the the pest damage (whichever comes first doesn't matter) they simply don't thrive here. I have very good soil, but the pH is still on the high side of neutral at 7.4 and Hostas want it lower.

On the other hand, there are fabulous plants I can plant which are perennial here, but up there would die in August from the cold! LOL One such plant is persicaria. I have several lof them and they are just beauties. I think I'm going to try and root some so I can plant more of them.

BTW, I bought another plant today. I'm too lazy to get up to look, but it is a new form of portulaca with an open flower, single, pink with a darker throat. I'm doomed. I almost can't wait for the heat when we hide indoors as you do in winter and I can get back to stitching. I'm making the Winter Sampler for my MIL for LAST Christmas! We're going up to Green Bay in September and we paid a fortune for Packer tickets home opener.

V

[Cheryl Isaak]

True there. But I have some HUGE slugs too.

Yes - I have had those in pots.

That does sound pretty

You should say hi to Dianne when you are there ;) C

[Jangchub]

Said with a thick cockney accent, not bloody likely!

I'll probably be freezing there in September. We usa heavy blankets when it goes down to 60!

I do hear from Pat now and then.

V

[Cheryl Isaak]

I don't know if I would or wouldn't if I were to be near by. (Mind you, I'm not getting another vacation until after DD is out of college)

Wimp :)

So do I! rctn is a quiet place of late. C

[Jangchub]

Not a wimp, just getting old, thin blood; literally! I'm in the hot lands for 14 years now. I doubt I'd ever move back up, unless it was Canada on the Pacific coast. For beautiful gardening and jungles, we may choose Costa Rica or Cancun.

I wouldn't know. After what was done to me with the Firehouse Angel going there ever again is not something I'd do.

I wish them all peace and joy. v

[madgardener]

o oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh LOUISIANA IRIS RHIZOMES??????????????????????????????????????? ooooooooooooo, spare rhizzies V???????????????????? maddie

[madgardener]

HOLY SHIT...........they eat Fritillaira's??????????????? wow....................keep 'em up there, wouldja please?? maddie who adores her lilies...................(I have three of the "Park" tribute lilies, Yellowstone, Shenandoah and Shiloh) not to mention my beloved Dragon lilies from Mary Emma that must have bulbs now the size of a grapefruit....................................

[Jangchub]

Sorry Mad, I already planted them. I promise next year, how bout that? You know all my stuff, anything else I can send?

v

[Jangchub]

Have you seen the variety of lillies called 'Strawberry Candy?' I have 'Chicago Pink,' but I MUST have those 'Strawberry Candy.' I may have to move to a bigger property! I hope I can take care of all this when I'm wheeling around on my Scooter!

[Cheryl Isaak]

As in daylily? It could be arranged