When they are skinny like that, there is no need to dig and divide. They need to stay where they are, have a good dose of blood meal every year and good drainage. There is really no need to divide asiatic or oriental lilies at all unless they are failing to thrive. But after an insult like having been eaten by a deer, it takes a year or two to recover. Most people think lilies have to be dug and divided often, but I find that often retards their growth the following year. I leave mine in place. I have a Midnight Strain trumpet lily that I planted 5 years ago. It was just one bulb and produced one stem. This year I have twelve stems, each one is over an inch thick. If the plants perform as they did last year, I expect each one to have about sixty trumpets on it. Believe me, that is a beautiful sight, worth waiting for. Lilies take time. Don't give them Miracle gro. Feed blood meal and be patient. That's my best advice. Lainey

Well you sort of missed your opportunity of separating them out before putting them into a larger container. You should have tried that before transplanting. I don't think the seller could have grown the plants any closer together if he tried harder to do so. They are really going to be entangled. I would pull them out and put them in a large bucket of water. Gently start shaking the plants under water to dislodge all soil and then try, again...gently...to work at separating the plants. You may lose some of the more delicate roots but as long as you keep the main mass of each plant, you should be okay. If it looks as if the plants have fused together below the soil line, then you may end up sacrificing a few. Won't know till you dig in there. Are you "pre-wetting" your peat moss before mixing with everything else? The reason I ask is that your soil mix looks almost like fresh peat out of the compressed bale. That stuff just repells water and once in a pot, it's almost impossible to get it to soak in water. Maybe it's just the picture but......had to ask. Everything looks good and healthy. So when do you start building a house with the mandatory attached greenhouse?!?!?! LOL!

I'm not holding much hope that things will work out now. The latest thing has been going on for over a year and when my sister ended up by chance running into my mom she asked to come for dinner and did and then things just escalated out of control. I guess because she talked to my mom, my dad flipped out and they ended up filing charges on my mom saying she has abused my sister physically. I don't believe it one bit as my sister was always the good kid and did what she was told, vs. I was the one always in trouble and arguing with my mom and she never lifted a finger on me though I would have deserved it and drove her nuts. I got an e-mail from my sister written the way my dad writes a letter (when I get mad at him and tell him to act like a grown up he sends a letter that he tries to explain why his way is the right way and I just end up not talking to him after that as his reasons just make me even madder). In this e-mail she is telling me our mom physically abused her since I moved to the US (very convenient for my dad) and listed all her injuries and hospital visits. The part that is the strangest to me is that those are all things that she did while playing soccer, basketball, skiing, and/or happened at school. All very public injuries. which makes it even more unbelievable. What really kills me is that my dad think I'm going to fall for this. Guess he thinks I didn't know about any of it. This was reported to the police back in June and they have not done anything about it and indicating to my mom that they don't believe it either. Unfortunatley for my sister she had a brain anerysm (sp?) at 12 years old and her memory in some areas are not the best, as well as her emotions are more on a teenage level now that she is in her mid twenties. She is also very easily made to believe certain things (gullible in a way and she has always been that way even before the brain injury, just a bit worse now) What really bothers me is that my dad is taking advantage of this and thinks in his mind that he is doing her a favor as his letters to me indicates when I told him he wasn't the right person to talk to her about mom because of his obvious dislike of my mom. I'm very worried for my sisters mental well being and wish there was something I could do. I've tried e-mailing her, but don't get a response other than my dad calling me. She did have a boyfriend, but my dad managed to get her to get him to leave (according to him) as her BF would at times talk to my mom. The words your ex told you is basically what my dad told my mom right after the divorce too. I think because she is a strong woman and did ask for the divorce too, she crossed him and he can't let that happen. You seem like a strong woman too and since your son is grown up now he will eventually like me see what his dad really is and probably know in his heart that you've tried what you could to allow him a relationship with his dad. BTW thanks for listening. It is helping to just write some of these things out. I'm still reeling from my dad calling my cellphone (which he never does) on my birthday and trying to wish me happy birthday while I tried to say I didn't want to talk to him right now. I ended up just hanging up as I didn't want to destroy the day by having an argument that would go nowhere with him and only end up with one of his silly letters again. Oh BTW over the years my mom has recieved countless of hate letters from him. I saw a few by chance once and I think at that point I went into denial for a little while until I had the courage to call him on it. He admitted to it, but of course in his manipulative ways had a perfectly good explanation for it too. Well since I now have gotten a few of his weird letters myself I no longer believe his explanations. Also putting all the history of things he has done over the years etc together has gotten me to this point. Took me a long time to realize this (again you don't want to believe your parents are capable of these things) and some of my friends that have met him don't really want to believe me as they just think he's the nicest guy. I just don't understand why people with children have to put their children through this. I applaud you for raising your children like you did even though it must have hurt you and I'm guessing you must have been worried about your childrens emotional well being too, at least I would have. Oh and for those reading this and thinking I'm being paranoid that my dad is doing this. There is a whole lot more to the story and a lot of history to back it up. It would take a book to describe it all. I just tried to cover the latest as short as I could.

Use a candy thermometer and watch the temperature carefully. When I make caramel for candy filling, I cook it to 244°, but for firm candy, it should be 248° - I'm not sure what the temp for sauce would be, but it would be less than 244°. Have a large bowl of water ready to set the pan in when you are ready to stop the cooking - otherwise the temperature will continue to rise even off heat, due to residual heat from the pan. I cook it on medium heat. Lars