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It never fails.
This weekend, I uncovered a pile of presents I bought before Thanksgiving, and there in the bag with them were three fancy amaryllis bulbs. DANG! I KNEW I'd bought those things to force, but I got so busy I forgot where I put them. Please, tell me I'm not the only one who does these things! Now I'm faced with this dilemma--to force them now, or wait for Easter. What to do, what to do. I asked my mother what she'd do with these "unopened gifts." Her advice was basically this: take the number of hours involved, and add to that the number of commitments you have, mutiply that by the number of children you have, throw in your spouse, and divide by the number of days left before Christmas. If you reach a workable number, force those bulbs. If it looks like too much work, wait for Easter. Epiphany flowers will work just fine, don't you think? Didn't the Wise Men have bulbs in their saddlebags, somewhere? AND ON THE OUTDOOR FRONT--- There is always a somber grace in the winter garden, it's just here a little early this year. The weather has made me a liar again-- I tell people all the time that December is a fine time to plant in our Zone 7. It's been so cold here already that my pond pump has frozen up. Cold, high winds broke a large tree Saturday night. When I went out to pull away deadfall, I found three blue hostas and a single astilbe, still in their nursery pots, next to my potting shed. Yes, I forgot those, too. Three gallon plants, no less. They need big holes. I sat having a cup of coffee this morning, thinking... "Well, these plants make it in Minnesota...maybe they'll live if I drag them into the garage..." and that's where they now reside. Now, I need to remember to throw water on them once in a while. No problem, right? Frankly, if this were a normal year (meaning "warmer than this one") I'd wait for a day with temperatures over fifty degrees and dig a hole for these plants, mulch them over real well, and THEN forget where I put them out until spring. But this year, the ground is getting cold fast, and I'm afraid the shock will put the plants away for good. The garage is a good alternative, as long as I remind my husband that those pots aren't just full of dirt, waiting to be tossed out. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Merry Messes! in Gardening in Southern U.S. is owned by Emily Levitt. Permission to republish Merry Messes! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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