Hi Rabbit: I read in previous post that you are a writer, made $$$ on a novel, I would like to know what's the name of your novel so I can check out. I like to read in my zone 5a winter. I appreciate the kosher-chicken-mushroom recipe you gave to me here ... except my husband gives me dirty looks when I put salt, and my kid gives me dirty look when I put mushroom ... so I haven't made it. Per your question of banana peels buried under bush ... that's great too. I chop up banana peels NPK 0-3-42 with a scissor and soak in molasses & a bit of vinegar for my tap water at pH 8 to extract banana's soluble phosphorus. Per your question of when to stimulate blooms? Right after it's done flowering, then I give it nutrients for the next flush. Right after moving a rose, I also give it soluble-nutrients to encourage root-growth. Alameda (Judith) in Texas wrote on how she forced stingy Graham Thomas to bloom: "When I was at Chamblee's last September, I asked what in the world I could do to the thing to make it bloom. They suggested Carl Pool BR 61. I doused it with that.......lo and behold, a few fall blooms! I did it again in spring and the bush actually bloomed well! I also used the combination of Spray N Gro/Bill's Perfect Fertilizer on it. After the bloom cycle, I cut it back - when I pruned in spring, I didn't allow those long tendrils." Rabbit: Carl Pool BR 61 has NPK of 9-58-8, plus trace elements. The high phosphorus is from monopotassium phosphate, which I tested using 0-58-34 bought from Kelp4Less, tons of blooms on Sonia Rykiel and recently transplanted Golden Cel. A cheaper source at $6 is MiracleGro Soluble Bloom Booster, NPK 10-52-10, with all trace elements. I tested that on Stephen Big Purple bought as tiny band this April. The result? 3 buds 1st flush, 7 buds 2nd flush, pinch that off, a week later, more buds were formed. Those zillion-petals also demand calcium, best in soluble gypsum, plus extra potassium. Soluble gypsum I bought cheap from Kelp4Less ($8 for 5 lbs.), free shipping. Sulfate of Potash has lower salt index 43, but I prefer banana peels with zero salt. Plantation blackstrap molasses supplies 20% calcium, 17% potassium, 20% iron & other trace elements. In soluble-fertilizer experiments, the best root growth was achieved through high potassium and high calcium, plus decent phosphorus. Best root growth also means more flowering.

Thank you all! Exactly what I was hoping! I feel much more confident and am now looking forward to my effort. I was hoping, if planted deep, it would encourage more rooting and stronger anchors for the steep hill, wind and erosion issues, plus retain more moisture for a better chance to adapt and establiship for permenance. I'm planting Devon?, Treasure Trove, White Banksias, Cl Cecile Breuner, Mermaid, SDM, Blushing Lucy, Darlow's Enigmas, Westerland and more I can not think of at this moment. I'm grateful for your combined wisdom and encouragement. I'm off to begin now, yesterdays good rain has prep'ed the hill and more rain expected sounds helpful. I don't expect Missy's or Pam's breathtaking results but hope for the best I can create in my location. Thanks again .....

I did my red maple in earlier in spring, trying to raise it. Mine was planted about 10-12" too deep, but I planted it myself, with the help of a hired hand in fall of 2015. BTW, I'm in Marlboro NJ, zone 7A. The tree in question was a beautiful October Glory maple. I was just aiming to get the top of the burlap bag an inch or 2 above the surrounding soil, not realizing until next spring, that I had made a mistake. It started out a beautiful 'rubrum' in spring, giving me hours of pleasure, as I just stood around it, sometimes nursing a drink. But as a very wet spring progressed, and the leaves were still not opening out fully, my mind raced to a number of things that could have gone wrong in the planting. I definitely had not cut the cage around it as thoroughly as I should have (damn thick guage wire, so hard to cut with pliers!). So, one very wet day, in a very very wet week, I started investigating, prying the dirt away, in an effort to find the wire cage. In the process I discovered that I could not see the root flare at all, instead the trunk was buried, and was discoloring and fraying from the surrounding soil and water. So I decided to raise it. I leaned on the tree, this way and that until it was moving on it's root ball. I shoveled dirt under the root ball, trying to work it in with my foot. Then I had a brainwave! I soaked the root ball and surrounding with water and waited. As the water drained down, the dirt mixed in the water found it's way to the bottom, while I was still wiggling it. It worked, the tree was slowly raised. And then I made the fatal mistake! I also saw roots that were growing from down on up. Now, with the tree raised, these roots were poking into the air. I started cutting them, some of them were big and juicy. I felt horrible, but could not stop! After I had raised and root pruned the tree to my aesthetic satisfaction, I covered it with dirt just so, and mulched and staked it. It looked really nice, with the frayed trunk, previously suffering the indignity of being buried, now finally breathing and recovering, or so I thought. I kept the tree well watered, even spritzing it a few times a day (deputizing my kids in the job as well). But the leaves started drooping. I increased the watering and spritzing, but to no avail. One by one, the leaves gradually turned brown, and then dropped. After a few weeks, in a frantic effort to save the tree, I cut back the branches a couple of inches from the terminal buds to encourage growth. But to no avail. Right now, it's late August, and a scratch test reveals a dead tree. No cambium, no phloem, no nothing! There are leaves growing from the base, but even those are drying up right now. So, I will definitely be replacing the tree. I have a question from this learned group, but I will first let this greek tragedy soak in first.

Beets take a long time. Especially if the ground is cool. I planted my first crop in mid-winter here (where mean temps are 40F or so), and they grew very slowly. Didn't see much root development for two months. Sort of disappointing. Then the roots started to fill out rapidly, and we've been eating beets almost continuously since April. They won't be done until mid-June, and I'm hoping they don't bolt. It will be different for different locales, and maybe more experienced beet growers will weigh in. But I found the pace of growth to be a little surprising. DTM is something like two months, but that's evidently not for cool weather and soil.