I took cuttings from trimmings of my one and only Provence Lavender that I had cut back to almost to the base in early spring. I just poked them into the ground at the back of each of my new potager beds. The mother plant has sprung afresh with tons of new branches and will be covered in blooms in a few weeks, but the cuttings just sat there and didn't seem to be doing anything. Still, I continued to water them every day unless it rained. I checked them two weeks back while I was weeding and they didn't seem to be doing anything, but they had not dried out, so left them alone. Two days ago while I was weeding the parsley and beets I saw a stem sticking up from the back of the beets. Upon closer inspection I discovered that it was a lavender plant and it was a bloom stem! I hurried around to the outside and saw that of the 34 little cuttings I started with, I now have 28 rooted lavender plants! A good number of those little darlings have bloom stems and will bloom! Yi-ha! I checked the three Hill Hardy Rosemary cuttings and they have rooted as well! Cool Beans! Just shows to go you (wink)...that you lose some...and sometimes...you win some! ~ sweetannie4u

By bulbs I presume you mean rhizomes? If the rhizomes are dormant or almost dormant when you planted them then I would keep them in a cool place like the garage until you can plant them in the garden, which would be as soon as a the ground thaws. The rhizomes won't be hurt unless the entire pot of soil freezes, and that is unlikely in your garage now, in fact, soon you will want to move them outside at least by day to prevent them from getting too hot and sprouting too early. If the plants are actively growing and above soil level then that's a problem and you basically have to grow them inside until hard freezes are over, then plant outside. I grew them (both the white "grandiflorum" and the red "erectum") for many years in an Ottawa suburb when I was a kid. I had them in a small north-facing garden up against the house and they basically grew and multiplied and were happy. Their natural setting in Ontario is in hardwood forests, where they bloom before the leaves come out on the trees (so semi-shady), then leaf cover from the trees becomes quite dense by the end of May so they spend the summer in deep shade. The ground doesn't freeze very deep in trillium country so I would probably try to plant them in a north exposure up against a house so that the rhizomes don't freeze too hard in winter (or give them lots of snow or mulch cover). Definitely in shade. Some pics I took of trilliums in the wild... Patch of Trillium grandiflorum: Individual Trillium erectus (these don't often form patches, more like scattered plants:

Things are different for us folks out here where it doesn't get really cold enough in Winter. There seems to be no rhyme or reason about which ones live or which ones decline. It probably has a LOT to do with the chill hours (below 40 degrees). I have a Halcyon from 1999 that I divide every 3 yrs or so, and it does fine along with several others that I bought in 2001. Mine are all in pots, as we have a California small yard with a Japanese garden. When you purchase a new one, it will probably do well for you for about 3 years using stored up energy. Then depending on conditions it will do whatever...keep going, or whither. I've tried keeping them drier (covered atrium in winter) or let them get winter rains. I've re-potted them in 70%bark/30 compost. Drainage is not a problem for me. Some still just rot and die, or get mites. I even subscribed to the Hosta Hybridizers Group when they first formed to get as much info on growing conditions as I could. But as you will note, there are folks here on the forum who live in IDEAL hosta weather areas, and they lose them too. So don't let the loss of one hosta discourage you. There was a poster here a few years back who was back East but who couldn't get Blue Ice to grow, after numerous tries. I wanted to send her some of mine, but after 4 years, mine died too. I got a new one in 2005 and it is doing great. Just keep up with the Sluggo, or they'll be toast overnite. Those folks back East don't know abour our escargo... Amonia (yeah right!) NOT. (j/k for you peeps who haven't seen 1" snails eat a whole 15" hosta leaf overnite.) -Babka

Only ones nissing are a couple of Whirlwinds (I had 10 in a rock garden, down to 8 now) and Spilt Milk (gonna dig it up to search for roots). Mt. Tom, as per last year, was the last to show, just last week. And he isn't looking too great. May have to replant him as well. The early birds who popped before the last, late freeze - looking a bit shabby, some of them! My bigger concern right now is the fledgling robins who are running around in the hostas and everywhere else in the yard. They keep scaring the carp out of me and then doing the same to themselves wherever they stand! Becky