I don't know if they are male or female. I googled it and attempted to find out but I'm still not real sure. My guess is they are both males. The new platy is a little bit bigger, but it's being picked on by the platy we already had. I kept the bigger platy in the net at the top of the tank overnight and just now let him out this a.m. And the smaller platy went right bak to chasing him around the tank. He doesn't quit either, continuously chasing it back and forth. This is just a 10 gallon tank. There aren't many decorations in it, but I could try rearranging them. He seems to chase him, wherever he's at. I don't have another tank to put one of them in. If this is going to happen with whatever fish I put in there, then I almost should get rid of the small, aggressive one, not the new one. What do you think?

Many people will WS straight into a container. They do put some sort of a greenhouse-creating cover on it. Whether you plant straight in the ground or a pot, the seeds are at the very surface, where it dries out fast, and they need daily or almost daily watering if you do not have a cover to hold the moisture in. You could do that, or just stretch some vented saran wrap across your pots, or use a clear garbage or dry-cleaning bag. Depending on how sunny your spot is, you will need big vents at this time of year since a warm day plus a very sunny spot may cook the seedlings. Most people recommend a soilless or mostly soilless mix for containers, if what you have is actual soil, I would mix it with some perlite or peat or both to make sure it stays pretty fluffy all season.

How much sun does the area you call "a barren wasteland" get? The west side of my main perennial bed has more of a slope than I realized when we created it (wish I had thought to have the landscaper terrace that area), and I have trouble getting things to grow there too. It doesn't help that the wind whips through that area, because the space between my house and my next door neighbor's creates sort of a wind tunnel affect. Anyway, what has done well over there instead of mulch, which just blows away, is the groundcover Delosperma congestum. It needs quite a bit of sun to bloom well, but it will survive in part shade. Mine gets about 5 - 6 hours of afternoon sun. There is also a white one, and a dark pink one too. You could also try groundcover sedums there. Delosperma congestum (Hardy Iceplant) Delosperma kelaidis 'Mesa Verde' The problem I have is that the air conditioning unit and garbage cans are on that side of the house, so I'd like something tall to block them from view, but the wind is so bad through there that everything tall ends up flopping everywhere. Several of the plants on this end of the bed are repeated in the middle, and on the right end of the bed, and those same plants are much taller and more vigorous on the flatter, less windy sections. For example, that Coreopsis 'Sunburst' is about 18" tall, the ones at the other end of the bed are closer to 30". If you look behind the flopping Achillea, you can see the AC and garbage cans. What you can't see is a 'Karl Foerster' ornamental grass, which is growing very slowly, that hopefully will hide things a bit by next year, but I have tried three different kinds of shrubs in that spot, and they either sit there without growing an inch, or they wither and die. I hope you don't think I'm trying to hijack your thread with my own issues. I just want you to know that every yard has its problem areas, and they are much more noticable to us, than other people that see our gardens. When I looked at your photo, I didn't see your problem area at all, only a gorgeous flower bed! I'll keep trying new things in that tough spot, but as long as the rest of the garden is in good shape, I don't let that one area bother me too much. Bonnie (whose hoping that this post comes across as an encouragement and not a criticism)

They are tulips. and they look extremely dehydrated. I don't hold out much hope for them. All you can do is plant them in moist medium or in the garden and hope for the best. The cold period is neither here nor there because that is all about getting flowers from healthy bulbs. Your goal is to see if they are even still alive. I'm afraid I very much doubt it. Bulbs are not seeds, so they don't germinate. They are the underground storage bodies of certain plants and in nature they should never dry out like seeds. Once they do they die.