Crocosmia, I have also had the same problem as you in that bulbs do better in the center of my beds than along the edges. Mine are all interplanted with perennials and even shrubs. I think that this provides them better drainage. I have learned to live with the occasional (well actually fairly frequent) slicing of the bulbs by my shovel. My daffodils are planted in circles or semi-circles, or behind many of my daylilies, especially those that are seen from some distance. The daylilies do a great job of hiding the dying daffodil foliage. I try to leave some room for growth of the daylilies, but in any case the daylilies seem totally unperturbed by the bulbs, even though I am unlikely to give them the foot of space :~) that at botanical garden might - I garden in a small area & everything is crammed. Some orange daylilies I like are Backdraft (orange with red eye), Egyptian Spice (amber orange blend) Orange Velvet, Orange Vols, & Tuscawilla Tiger. There are lots more available! Most of my daffodils, however, are planted around in my red daylily/shrub bed at the back of my yard. In my small orange daylily bed I used a different method that you might find interesting. I use minor bulbs all in shades of blue. Smaller bulbs like Ipheon, Scilla, Chionodoxa, Iris reticulata & such can go much closer to other plantings and only need to be planted 3-4 inches deep. I actually planted all the bulbs when the bed was first made and the daylilies had not been chosen yet, poked them in with my finger. I then partially buried upside down nursery pots in the bed to mark the daylily spots and let the bed rest until the following spring when my daylilies arrived in the mail. It was a sheet of blue in the spring. Many minor bulbs can also go in shade areas around hostas for example which come up very late. If the shade is from deciduous trees, these bulbs can easily finish their cycle, and get enough nourishment to bloom and spread around, before the trees are leafed out. So look around at all those areas too and plant more bulbs! Don't overlook miniature daffodils they can be tucked in here and there and everywhere and the foliage disappears so much faster than full-size daf foliage. Please see my pictures in the thread Tulips return. Over the tulips in the first picture, I usually plant portulaca as someone in this thread mentioned, or some other low water annual. I am always afraid I'll do something stupid and these perennial tulips (still going strong in 4th spring) won't come back for me. Most tulips are strictly annuals in my garden. I also have the tulip area edged in Blue Fescue Grass, and use the small blue Sedum sieboldiana and blue Myrtle spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) & other dry plants like Geum coccineum borisii (bright orange which you would really like) which do not thrive in my dense wet clay, except in this raised gravel bed. Blue and orange is one of my favorite combinations! And while there aren't many cold zone early spring bulbs in orange, there are plenty of blue, whites & yellows. Tried a pretty in-between size daffodil this year called Bantam that you might like. It's a very neat & compact bright yellow daffodil with a ruffled orange edge on the cup. There are many others with this color, but the size is more unique. Oh, and there are lots of hardy lilies that come in orange, can't forget them. Anyway have fun! Sorry this is so long, I get carried away when I get enthused about things. LOL

I made the mistake of building a concrete walkway around both trees and gave them only a 4 feet opening in order to water them. On one of these trees, the concrete starting lifting and it cracked in the middle. My biggest concern is that since my house is about 8 feet away from both trees, I worry that the roots will start growing underneath the foundation and crack it. I think that in order not to worry each time that I see them, I will probably cut them down. Can someone please tell me if I cut the trees down and leave the roots (since the roots are underneath the concrete) will they still spread or once I cut down the tree, the roots will die like the trees? Thanks in advance.

The best "soil" for rhododendrons contains at least 25 to 50% organic matter. In this case, err on the side of lots and lots of organic matter. Shredded conifer bark, especially if it is partially decomposed, is an excellent additive. So are conifer needles. Sand is useful, but probably not necessary. You want a planting area with a diameter of 3 to 4 feet. It doesn't need to be any deeper than a foot. Providing ideal conditions for root growth and watering with just a trickle at the plant's base when necessary is much better than trying to push things with any sort of fertilizer, which can do more harm than good. If the flower buds feel hollow, you will likely get only partial bloom, if any. The outermost florets can be killed by cold leaving only the inner ones capable of producing flowers. There's no harm in waiting to see what happens, but dead heading after bloom so that none of the plant's energy goes into seed production is important. There are various fungicidal drenches, but they have limited usefulness and are pretty nasty. Better to keep a close watch for lacebugs and other pests that can damage the leaves and stress the plant. These can be dealt with using low impact pesticides such as insecticidal soap. BTW, it would be useful to know the name of this variety. If it's one of the "good doers" you should have no problems. More exotic varieties may require more patience, but should be fine in the end.

Lol. It's actually at the park across the street from my house when HOA asked me to plant trees with low budget last year. I had read that it was fast grower so I figured why not get it at 12 bucks (5g/3feet). It grew like 6 inches when I was hoping for a several feet since it was pretty small to begin with so I thought it wouldn't take that long to get established before growing rapidly. I'm just afraid of neighborhood kids destroying a baby tree... By the way, I am planning on donating 'Fire Dragon' shantung maple to the park when I move Live Oak to a better spot with more space. It's a little too close to Montezuma cypress where it will provide shade on the playground. Where Live oak is, it won't do much as far as providing shade. It's on the north side of playground. 'Fire Dragon' will go in its place. It won't get too big to get in the way of MC tree.