Well i got them all dug up today. washed off all the dirt,cut all the leaves off except the ones in the centers. thats what i was going to do,just set the corms in a box and maybe mist them once a while. my basement stays pretty warm but i can shut off two of the vents in the ceiling to keep it cooler. i'm curious as to these tubs your talking about at walmart? i need something large i can house my large prickly pear bushes i'm bringing with me when i move. but i have to be able to drill a hole in the bottom for drainage and be able to pick it up as the cacti are large... Thanks

Oops. Well it looks like they might get snowed on this evening. I just didn't have the energy to do anything today. Besides the fact that my back was killing me after yesterday's moving marathon I had several hours of running around this morning and I was too wiped out to do anything when I got home. I started cutting brugs and after 10 minutes I said scr*w this. If I didn't have the energy to cut the plants back I certainly wasn't going to start digging them up. I can't believe that we're supposed to have accumulating snow. It's not supposed to snow here until at least Dec! The forecast was originally for flurries that weren't supposed to stick. I hate the weatherman too.

We just call it "soil conditioner" here, too, rootdigger. And I've ALSO bought Timberline brand before (I believe that brand is actually made in S.C.)... For a year or so, for some reason, the Nature's Helper brand simply wasn't available for some strange reason... I don't know if their plant went down, or they had a strike, or what... The main reason I actually PUSH Nature's Helper is because when it WASN'T available and I used bulk soil conditioners and other brands, and then when it became available again, I went from THE BEST, to the other stuff, back to THE BEST, and for this RARE OCCASION I actually DID see THE DIFFERENCE. It's VERY RARE that I will push a NAME BRAND over a GENERIC. I'm a MAJOR FAN of generics. Nature's Helper is, so far, one of those exceptions. When I open one of their bags (and they HAVE disappointed by reducing the bag size to 1.5 cubic feet down from 2 cubic feet, while keeping the price the same, but it appears all the other brands have done similar)... anyway, when I open the bag, I get a rich, sweet aroma, a bright color, and a fine, warm texture that just seems higher quality than what I've seen from the other bagged brands and DEFINITELY better than what I got when I bought it by the scoop. Trust me. I WILL be VERY VOCAL when and if Nature's Helper starts to disappoint me, because I don't recommend a brand this much and then have them let me down without doing a FIRM 180! I'll start a thread titled something like "Nature's Helper No Longer Any Good!" And the next time I buy soil conditioner, just out of curiosity, I'm going to buy at least one bag of every brand I can find, just to see how much difference I see when I have them to compare directly, NOT from memory. Now... NUFFADAT! nannerbelle, sounds like you have a nice little collection... and gonebananas, you actually grow EDIBLE bananas in ZONE 7 in ONE SEASON?!?!? Can you give us more details on that? Seems incredible -- especially given that you're replanting them FRESH every year! By the way, at its fall plant sale in October, Hatcher Garden in Spartanburg had 5-foot Musa basjoos for $10... And then in the afternoon, when they were trying to clear things out, everything was cut to half price, so were you there, you could have gotten a 5-foot Musa basjoo for $5!!! And they STILL didn't sell out! I think I paid $25 for one about half that size at Plant Delights a few falls ago! I'm pretty sure the leftover stock will still be for sale in the spring. Jeff

About the containers: many earthenware pots are labelled frost resistant. Others are not. Frosting can make them brittle. It acts on them just the way it does on rocks. Any tiny crack that holds moisture freezes, the ice expands, and bits flake off. After a while the pot starts to crumble. If there is soil in it, the soil expands with the frost and can cause the pot to break. If the pots are very large then winter wrapping them could save you some hard work. If you have them placed on a good concrete surface you can put them on plant trolleys to move them more easily under cover. The annuals and their mix can be composted. If you want to reuse the pots clean them before you put them away. A dip into a chlorine bleach solution will also help to subdue any fungal spores that might have settled. It's better to do this job around now. Dry mix is very nasty to work with. It's lovely to just go to a pile of clean pots and start immediately in spring. Bugs and things have nowhere to winter over. If those pots are big enough, and you have the room/facilities - you can start bulbs indoors using pots, ready for planting out next year. For winterising, ask on the Far North site: bubble wrap and frost cloth, heavy-duty insulation and string all come into it. A bit more serious than my haphazard 'chuck a bit of cardboard over'...