Liz, the grandmother stuff happens to lots of people. It must be irritating too. I wish people would think before they blab. Jem, since I am 9 years younger, people are supposed to think he robbed the cradle, not the other way around. :o) Paula, she didn't seem mean-spirited, but who knows. She seemed sweet, but confused. We went out to dinner last night and while hub went to the restroom, the waiter came back to take our drink order and asked if I knew what my husband wanted to drink. I was so happy to hear that. Sleeper, from what I understand, her family used to own the business and when they were bought out, they kept her on. Could be that was part of the sales agreement and she needs the money, and that is why she continues to work there. I don't know though. She didn't look "off", she is a pretty, well-groomed older lady, but the remarks about knowing him since he was a boy and talking to his mother did throw me. She HAD seen him recently though, he went in to place the annual order a couple weeks before I picked it up. But I am gonna go with mistaken identity or senility, it makes me feel a whole lot better. :o)

Richard, it is your last sentence which really tells the tale. So many mycorrhizal preparations have had meager research results and it seems likely that getting the fungi to survive in their new home is a large part of it. This is a rapidly changing field of investigation though, and I can report that "helper bacteria", which appear to set the table, so to speak for the mycorrhizal organisms are being looked at. We talked about that complexity earlier and this is one such area of further detail that is being worked out....or at least that's the goal. The other stumbling block is that strains of these various mycorrhizal fungi can be host-specific. Not in every case mind you, but for some plants, there is one and only one fungal partner. So take larch for an easy example: They appear to "work with" the bolete (a type of mushroom) Suillus grevellei almost exclusively. And Suillus grevellei may not partner with an adjacent species. Not wishing to talk out of my depth here, I'm going to leave it at that. I may be interested in this stuff and have been for decades now, but I'm no mycologist, and should one wander in here, they could perhaps see some problems with bits that I've written. Overall though, this is what appears to be happening. I do not see any harm however in "inoculating" with a bit of forest soil. First, by volume, it's too little to get you into all the stuff we usually decry in soil amendments. Second, it just might work in some fashion............who knows?

Hi JL. You're correct in thinking that after a new bulb pushes out a few scapes the bulb does get "squishy" as when they arrive to the nurseries they are pumped up with fertilizers and are full of moisture. These new bulbs will never be as big as when you first bought them even after you've grown them several years, they will however be firm and actually as hard as a rock and after sending up a scape which they usually do one at a time in the future, the bulb will remain hard. I know it's temping to water these bulbs but unless they are actually growing leaves, I wouldn't. It's the leaves that use the water. The actually bulbs themselves are capable of sending up one of two or even 3 scapes without needing water unless, you know that they have a few viable roots but it's the leaves that process the water. Don't be alarmed when you see a huge amount of shrinkage after these new bulbs bloom and it will take a summer in the sun with lots of leaf growth to bring them back to their hardest consistency albeit much smaller. This is one reason why I never buy these bulbs advertised as jumbo because they will suffer so much shrinkage they may never recover. As for you Rosy Star, I remember the picture its two beautiful scapes and buds and I hope that they do open for you, as they should. I think you bought this at Russell's and I bought an Aphrodite in a similar condition and the first bud has just opened its first flower. Keep us posted on their progress. Donna

There are all kinds of myths out there about grubs in lawns and they can be a bad thing if the population gets too large. Mostly they are lees of a problem than most people make them. Many people will tell you that grubs attract moles and they are a food source for the moles but not the primary one which is earthworms. As gardengal states above grubs eat plant roots, which is why you find them in lawns, and flower and vegetable gardens, but they must also eat other things which is why they are also found in manure piles and compost heaps. This article from the University of Maryland is quite informative about grubs. https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/grubs-lawns