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Plant More Bulbs! Please!Read the article this discussion is about
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» Barbara Nicholson Bell - those critters... Oh, how disappointing when the gaping holes appear just where you spent hours on sore knees planting the iris and tulips and hyacinth and crocus. I have few good spots to plant bulbs, and am not as spry as I used to be. It was difficult to get them in the ground, all for nothing!I really want some iris - I may try again this year, even though it is late for planting here in upstate NY. Your article is great motivation! -- posted by Barbara Nicholson Bell » Howie - Re: those critters... In response to message posted by bici:<img src="http://www.suite101.com/files/topics/319/files/BlueEntoloma3.jpg" width="50" height="65" alt="Blue Entoloma, at Lake Matheson, New Zealand, 3,266 bytes" border=”2” align="left">It is raining heavily just now so I have an excuse not to go outside to see if all the hundred crocus I planted yesterday are still in the ground. I feel resonably safe with regard to the hundred plus narcissi and the dozens of lilies I planted a few days ago. Each evening I staggered back into the house and collapsed. Squirrels should take pity on gardeners and leave their plantings in the ground. Animal lovers should not rebel against squirrel coats. They would keep their wearers warm and contribute to the color of spring and summer. -- posted by Howie » chiggins - Planting Bulbs Barbara,Long time no see. You are "right-on" in your article, not that I'm surprised about that. Fall bulbs can be a blessing in the spring, and a pain in the knees in the fall. The "critters" do more than make holes where you plant bulbs, and leave the daffodil bulbs on top of the ground. I plant daffodil seeds in the fall, and have to plant with a 1/2 inch screen over the bed so the critters will not dig them all up and scatter the seed. I'm finding more and more that I have little fences around my valuabe plants to keep squirrels, rabbits and deer out. Clay -- posted by chiggins » Cottage_Garden - Re: Planting Bulbs &CRITTERS In response to message posted by chiggins:Well Clay Higgins great to hear from you!!! If anyone knows about planting bulbs in quantity, it would be YOU! I remember how you did all those huge new beds and moved and took along ALL those thousands and thousands of precious show quality bulbs and how gorgeous they looked in the spring. Awesome job. Do you have some new daffodil introductions coming up??? Gosh, don't TALK to me about critters and fences. I set a little rose in a bed surrounded by violas and had to put a five foot high mesh fence around THAT -- and I still don't know if it was the deer, the woodchuck, the bunny or the neighbor's goat who had been munching there. The deer and falling branches had mangled my wire perimeter fence, once we get the leaves cleaned up we need to check the wires. It's always something!!! How are your stockade fences working? -- posted by Cottage_Garden » chiggins - Re: Re: Planting Bulbs &CRITTERS In response to message posted by Cottage_Garden:I have started calling the deer, goats as they come right up and eat the pots on my porch. My stockade fences are working well. The dear have only breeched it once in three years. That's the only place I can grow deer candy, e.g., tulips, lilies, hosta, etc. As for new introductions, as you know daffodils take about 7 years to bloom. So it's a long weight. I put one new White with a Pink cup under number last year. I'm very hopefull for it. It's parents were Foundling and Roseworthy. It looks like Foundling but instead of being a small division 6 cyclamineous like Foundling, it's large like Roseworthy and was show quality. Time will tell. I also has a few new bulbocodiums that are ready to go under number. We will see. Had a successful 2002 show season, with more blue ribbons than I could bring home in the trunk of my car, but that seems about normal now. I'm waiting for my new introductions to start winning on the show bench. Nice talking to you, again. I still read you column, even when i don't always post. Clay -- posted by chiggins » Cottage_Garden - Re: Re: Re: Planting Bulbs &CRITTERS In response to message posted by chiggins:Have you started naming the goat/deer? That is where I draw the line, I swear at them all equally. My daughter learned her first "bad word" over deer. I would get so fed up and just hop up from the breakfast table and run outside screaming "You Darned Deer!!!!" and throwing things and they would look at me and maybe amble a few feet away or lope into the woods and snort back at me. Great example of parental idiocy insanity and futility. Deer season started on Monday. Kids get the day off school, it is a big event here. Cars parade around the town center with dead deer on display, you can get your photo in the paper, too. I always have mixed feelings about it, I am scared to go outside, too. The park service has also been thinning the herd on their extensive nearby property. It is controversial but to be honest it is having an effect on the deer population in my neighborhood. They have done it for several years now to keep to a target population level. So I am hoping we never see twenty plus in the front yard climbing the kitchen steps to eat the foundation plants again. That was horrible. The ice storms were so bad they couldn't eat the usual acorns and were desperate and starving all around us. This was a few years back. I think you live bordering a park that would be great deer country? I know they are inside the DC beltway munching through the neighborhoods. And I get a lot of notes about deer from people in more heavily populated areas, like eastrn PA. What an unfortunate situation. Anyhoo. Have you named that daffodil or just given it a registration number? It must be truly special if you are considering it for that -- with all your ribbons you have a highly trained eye. Do you have to keep it a closely guarded secret until it is ready? I am not sure I understand how the introduction system actually works? And then the commmercial aspect? Somehow I sort of doubt it is in any way a get rich quick scheme. Very exciting!! -- posted by Cottage_Garden
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