Garden Watchdog can often be a little off the mark. For example, House of Wesley has a terrible rating. I have ordered from House of Wesley for 20+ years and the ONLY problem that I have EVER had from them is one year, 2 strawberry plants out of 100+ never leafed out. They sent replacements that fall. Like any nursery, it is the customer's responsibility to order early, like February or before, in order to receive the plants in a timely manner before it gets too hot to ship plants safely to the customer's home. The plants from them arrive in bare root dormant condition and appear like brown sticks. Of course they do, they are dormant. Plant them in a pot in the shade, keep well watered and they should break dormancy within a couple months. I've seen it many times over, from various nurseries. People do not give their plants enough time to break dormancy. They stop watering them and then complain that the the plants died. Remember that these plants are dug up in the fall. After they are planted in the spring, they have a whole winter's worth of roots to grow before putting out leaves. Some plants, such as apples and other rose relatives, can grow roots in days, while others, such a Paulownia can take over 2 months. I have also ordered plants from nurseries that get great ratings on Garden Watchdog with dismal results. If in pots, the dirt may be infested with bugs, or if bare root dormant trees, absolutely no packing material to keep the roots moist. Etc. Etc. Sorry about rambling, but Garden Watchdog needs to be taken with a large grain of salt.

1. In Toronto you would want to grow long day onions. 2. a pkt means seeds, Onions can be grown from seed, but it is more difficult than starting with plants that have been professionally grown. 3. In your area, onion sets should do fairly well. These are small dried bulbs of long day storage onions usually Stuttgarter (yellow), Ebenezer (yellow), Red Weatherfield, White Ebenezer. 4. Like all hybrids in general, hybrid onions do not come true from saved seed. Only the most dedicated seed saver saves onion seeds tho, they are biennials takes two years. They seed the second year. so hybrid -open pollinated may not be an argument for you. I am in a short day area( grow onions in winter) so I will be no help with variety. Stokes has a vast assortment for your area.

Hi Deanna, Bulbs store energy for the plant that can tide it over during rough times. So, rotted stems are like busted stems, as long as the bulb is large enough to support itself through next year (its not a tiny bulblet) it will come back, just a little smaller. This may result in a smaller plant with fewer blooms the first season but it will otherwise be fine. The thing to check is whether or not the bulbs have healthy looking roots. In the Fall if you find that the bulb and roots are rotten I wouldn't bother to plant it. Stressed bulbs often will decide to take a season off and not send up foliage (or abort growth already started). Instead it will spend its time growing new roots. So that doesn't mean they are dead. It sounds like your stems got the fungal disease botrytis possibly from overwatering. With your curled up new sprouts (possibly lieing along the soil) this would be an easy thing to have happen. Putting late planted bulbs in pots is usually a good idea since you can use sterile well draining soil and, depending on where you put the pot, control watering and sun. So don't hesitate to do that in the future. Botrytis strikes plenty of lilies in the garden as well. I'd cut away any diseased foliage (and throw it out securely) and spray the remaining foliage and the pots soil surface with a rose fungal spray. I've included a link with some info. -Helen Here is a link that might be useful: Plantlilies botytis link

I would reccomend you do some reading on both the prairie moon nursery site and on the www.prairienursery.com site. Both sites have good information about preparing field such as yours for a wildflower planting. One key note is that I would not just buy a bag of wildflower mix at the local big box retail store. These mixes tend to not be successful for many years. You want a quality seed mix from one of the websites mentioned previously or from a local native plant supplier check, with Indiana Native Plant society for recommendations in your area. You do want to mix grasses with your flowers. If you do some reading you will figure that out. what is the history of your 2 acre field of grass? Would it be possible to stimulate a dormant seed bank of wildflowers with a prescribed burn, where you may not have to plant anything? Or has it been plowed and planted as a farm in the past?