Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Whats happening in your neck of the woods? Pronostications , 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
You know---it is sad that there are not, again, too many people posting on the MA Forum.
Are we all too busy with seeds and cuttings and such that no one has the time to jump in--even for a short post?

I come every day--several times-- to see if there are any new posts. Nope!

OK! Today was an amazing day for March! Over 70*! How long can this continue???
I was out working in my garden for several hours--then got tired and came in and tried to nap.
I can NEVER nap----just laid on the couch in semi La--La land....then got up and resumed "living"....:o)

What I did today was try to dig up plants that I no longer wanted, or plants that did not want to grow for me here--
and pot them up--keeping the upcoming Plant Swap in mind...

As I have expressed before---my Monkshood plants just do not seem to want to grow well for me here...
So---I dug up the whole clump--which, at this time of year, was nothing more than a lot of
small rhizomes sprouting up for the season to come.

I don't know why they do so badly here......They grow lush and green until early fall--then they start to
rot out from the roots (??) and the leaves turn brown and whole stems die back .
I am lucky if I see a couple measly blooms by late fall.

Anyway--I ended up with 17--4" pots--2 plants in each.
I have Monkshood in another spot--but they do the same thing....
I will hang on to these two and see if I can do anything to fix them up. It is SOOOO frustrating!!!

WHAT do they need to thrive????
I have been growing them in filtered sunlight in a good enough soil in a bed next to my shed.
They grow gung-Ho all summer--and then, for no reason, start to die off. It "may" be a bit wet there.....

I also dug up three off-shoots from my Nandina and potted them up. I do not want this to spread.

I had stuck in a pile of cuttings last fall from stem ends of my Endless Summer Hydrangea as well.
Decided to see if they were rooted....NOPE! Even though the growth buds were live and well--there were NO roots.
Pulled them all up and scraped the stem ends a bit to "wound" the bottoms of the cuttings.
Maybe this will help in the rooting. I wanted so bad for all these to be rooted to take to the Plant Swap!

Anyway--that is what I did today...OH! I also fertilized my lawn with Milorganite.
What a GEM of a fertilizer that is! Eco friendly and slow release....Big bag--under $14 at HD.
It is like---6-0-2. It is the end product of the county sanitary water treatment systems.
CLEAN! ODORLESS! AND A GREAT FERTILIZER! NOT recommended for food crops though.
I used it last year in the spring--and my lawn was so lush I could not even see the soil below it.
Google MILORGANITE and see how it is produced! You will be impressed!

Tomorrow--I will try to finish pruning back the remaining Juniper shrub in front of my house.
I hand-prune it every two years. One stem at a time......so it never looks sheared....
Hey! These two shrubs came with the house in 1969! I have kept them manageable for 43 years!

OK! enough to do tomorrow!!!! IF it does not rain!!! Supposed to.....blahhh....

What are YOU all doing in this amazing weather?????? POST SOMETHING!!!!!

Gita
Here is one of my prettiest Hellebore....even if I DO like the deep purple ones best....