Last year was a poor year for my butterbeans, and my eggplant as well. Those of us in the North and Northeast had heavy rains in late May & early June which delayed planting, and there seemed to be some other factor at work... perhaps more cloudy days in early summer. There were many threads on GW last year regarding difficulty with eggplant... and since both eggplant & limas prefer similar conditions, perhaps the problems were at least partially climate-related. I don't know if Atlanta experienced those rains last year, but they could have been a factor... if they delayed planting. Did the butterbeans flower earlier, but not set pods? If so, excessive heat may have caused blossom drop. I also agree with Sandy, when someone talks of "beautiful plants" but no pods, the first thing I suspect is too much nitrogen present in the soil. Any combination of these (and other factors) may have caused the poor yield. Of course, this was also a new variety... perhaps it simply was not adapted to your conditions, or was weak by nature (like one large lima that I tried last year). Have I got you thoroughly confused yet? ;-) Hopefully something here will ring a bell.

For future reference you can just tack these additional questions on to your previous posts and it bumps them right back up to the top. No need to start a new one each time. That way all of your questions and the answers given are tied together and we don't have to search out the previous questions or rehash previously given info. As to the mix, only soil-less potting mixes are recommended for containers no matter what you are growing in them. No regular garden soil, no Miracle Grow brand Garden Soil only MG Potting Mix, no potting soil and no regular top soil. All of those compact far too much, do not drain effectively in containers, and cause root root. You'll also find any number of recommendations for potting mixes over on the Container gardening forum here. As to eventually planting them in straight clay soil? I can't help you with that as I don't have clay. Can only say that from all I have read, those that have to deal with heavy clay soil don't seem to find it good for growing much of anything. The Soil Forum here has many discussions on how to amend clay soils so that they can be used for planting so you might want to do some reading over on that forum too. Dave PS: I am curious as to why you want to shade these since chokes are full sun lovers?

I have always found new bulblets attached to the bottom of bulbs. From Lily of the Valleys, to Hyacinths, to Amaryllis, they all put out new bulbs from the bottom. Once the layer/scale that the bulblet is under, like on mine, dries up and turns thin and papery, it 'sprouts' out of the soil and there is another bulb growing. Sounds like the way my Papilio is doing it, just the way yours does it, it is on the basal plate,under a layer/scale, and once the layer dries out, it will pop through it, sprout and start to grow. Maybe because it is so big now, it is showing through? Which means maybe it will be a 'great mother bulb:)'. That it will make many bulbs, once it is growing and happy, it will become a bulb making 'machine'. Maybe the bulblets on some of your amaryllis are smaller and dont show when you have them out of the soil, but they do come from the basal plate/under a layer/scale. Like that very first Papilio I got that has SO many bulblets removed, and their removal ripped so many layers, it deformed the bottom, and that started me writing here, asking for advise, it is a great 'mother bulb' as Donna said, they took off so many bulblets, wherever it came from, they deformed it. As Donna said, it sounds like it is/was a great mother bulb, putting out so many that they took them off...like 6 of them. Well that first one is still living, no rot yet! And signs of life on it now, leaves at least, so it might put out a lot more bulblets down the road. Where as all my other Papilios didnt have any bulblets on them. They were all removed. BUT this one is under a live layer/scale, so the grower couldnt remove it, without causing major damage. The other 3 Papilios didnt have any bulblets showing...when planted. Well...I am just happy to have a baby bulb growing on the mother bulb, and as long as it grows and flowers and then one day this bulblet pops up, I will be happy:).

I decided to repot them all into a better mix and better groups last Friday, I didn't want to water them in to a mix that wasn't good to I did a more thorough root cleaning and a better foundation. The jades have their own home now. The semp will spend the winter all alone in a very frosty south window in the basement. I don't know what else to do with it and not sure if it can go outside in my zone over the winter or if I wld have enough time to harden off it off. If it should perish....I plan to redeem myself with a succulent rock garden in it memory. We bought a house last year with a south facing yard and have tons of landscaping rocks on 3 sides and an island of them in the back. We both really, really, don't like all these rocks, but where can we put them all?? Is it a blessing in disguise? After reading so much in the forum I feel like I know you all a little, everyone is so nice and helpful, so I will share another picture of what I have in store for my gardening future. I have so many ideas! My DH is a farmboy in the city so we will have some fun. Mr. B says hi! All the leaves dropped in a week, we had some drought then some snow. I got a fire pit and tree skirts as wedding present from DH. He did it while I was away for the weekend. How do you say, "Thank you, I love you so much and I hate tree skirts? You don't, everyone worked so hard and filled it full of flowers! I hope to use some of that labor for helping in the garden when we get one. Did I mention it faces south? All I will do all winter is research, plan, discuss. 2 year, 5 year, 10 year, etc. I hope to share my progression either here or somewhere on these forums, this IS where the experts are at!