Adding my 2 cents, sorry I'm late to the party: to WC8's questions: 1. When did you take yours out of the fridge? Around St. Patrick's Day every year, middle of March. 2. When did/will yours go outside? Around mid-April, as night temps are regularly 40F. Not so much from risk of cold damage, but these grow much slower in cold temps. You'll progress faster with the higher temps indoors. 3. If they're not outside now, where are they? (Light, temps, etc.) Before going outside, I just stick them in front of a window to get as much sunshine as possible. 4. Full sun when outside? Yes. Love high temps and humidity, but make sure they don't dry out. 12 of mine are planted in an 8" clay bulb pan that sits in a saucer of water a la phrags. 5. When do you bring them inside? Not until the fall. Foliage starts to turn yellow in October here. I stop the frequent watering, but don't allow complete drying out. When foliage is dead and brown (end of Oct here) you can dig the tubers. There will be a shallow network of roots connecting the original, shrivelled tuber and the main plant to an average of 4 new tubers (as Kevin said). Unearth everything carefully, then snip the tubers free. Do not try to trim the root extremely close to the tuber, as next year's shoot is hiding within, and you might cut it 6. When do they go in the fridge, if that's later than coming inside? As soon as the tubers are dug, cleaned, and packaged, they go into the fridge. Idea is to avoid drying out at one extreme and rotting at the other. 7. How do you store yours in the fridge? Paper sack, maybe? Naked? I dampen a clean paper towel, then wring it as dry as possible. I roll the tubers loosely in the paper towel, not allowing them to touch each other. Towel goes into a ziplock freezer bag, sealed carefully, then into the fridge. Fertilizing: I had read that they don't like fertilizer. Two years ago: no fertilizer = few flowers. Last year: regular, orchid-strength liquid fertilizer = lots of flowers. Potting mix: 1:1 sand and peat moss. I fill the pot 75% to the top with mix then put in a single layer of damp sphagnum moss strand. I "nestle" the tubers into the moss, then dribble sand/peat mix to cover completely, but shallowly. Flowers: about 1" wingspan, anywhere from 2-12 per flowering scape. Plants seems to flower when mature, which is a function of when you started them in the spring, and how warm the weather is. For me, about Aug 15, and the flowering period is about 2-3 weeks. Feature often not seen in photos is the flower's angraecoid-like spur, which is up to several inches long. There is also a very nice daytime fragrance. Some MA pollinator must like the flower too, since I found 2 seedpods on the plants last year when I was digging up the tubers. Hope this is helpful. I think this is one of the most rewarding orchids ever for those who live in a temperate climate with warm summers.

The biggest difficulty people have in keeping poinsettias alive is that they need A LOT OF LIGHT. If you are able to provide that, the rest is relatively easy. Most houseplants are rainforest epiphites growing on the lower branches of trees shaded by the canopy, or else small trees adapted to lurk for decades on the forest floor in very deep shade waiting for a big tree to die so they suddenly begin ultra-rapid growth and join the canopy. That's how our tropical houseplants can get by in the very low light conditions of most homes. Poinsettias are not that; they're native to slightly drier, less-shaded areas with more seasonality. In the house they should be in a very bright South-facing window. Outdoors, where you can set them in the summer, they should be in light shade. They especially need a lot of light because the colorful red or pink leaves are not photosynthetic. The second most difficult thing about poinsettias is that they are pretty sensitive to moisture levels; they don't like to get bone-dry, but they do get root-rot very easily if they are wet. To save a newly-bought poinsettia after you are done showing it, re-pot it in a well-draining pot with a tray (the tinfoil wrapping they come in holds the water too deep and can drown the roots) and put it in a bright window. It may go dormant, but in my experience this can be brief. As for getting them to re-bloom, it supposedly occurs when they start getting exactly 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark in a 24-hour period. This happens with natural sunlight in March and again in October. In my experience it happens with shorter light periods than that. But it also doesn't necessarily happen to the whole plant at once in the artificial conditions of a home; each branch is "triggered" individually. So in my experience what happens is that, for whatever reason, one branch or half of the plant will enter the bloom phase and start producing red leaves, while the rest of the plant is still green. The colored branches are most commonly the ones closest to the window. I think it may be because indoor lights prevent the inward-facing branches from getting the proper 12 hours of dark. (I'm sure you know that the colored part of the plant is leaves, not flowers, yet they still always occur along with actual flowers, which are small, yellow and sticky and occur at the end of the stem.) In any case, you don't want your poinsettia to bloom too often, because that's very taxing on the plant and the most likely time that the plant will die. Sometimes when poinsettias drop their leaves and begin to recover, you're still in the period of short days in early spring, and will find that the plant's first new leaves are also colored, which is very bad because the plant is using the low remaining energy reserves it has to produce leaves that aren't photosynthetic. The plant can potentially go into an irreversible collapse, trying to save itself with progressively weaker leaves that form then drop and are useless to the plant because they aren't green. For this reason I don't like to force re-blooms. I just like to grow it as a green houseplant and let it surprise me when the conditions are just right and it blooms. It will not look the same as the store-bought plants because there will still be more green on it; there will be a small shock of red at the end of each green-leafed stem, but I think that's a good thing because it's safer from the cascading collapse that I described.

Arktrees - you are right maple is a 1.75" b&b, magnolia is a 15 gal container. I checked with the landscaper about the tree depth question, and while he took this as an insult (why can't tradesfolks let go of their ego - it was a fair question and I meant no harm!!), he did say that he did not bury the root ball and that the trunk flare was slightly above existing grade. Visually it looks like the place where the trunk meets the soil is 2-3 inches above existing grade when I measured with a tape. So if no additional soil was added on the root ball, I can think of two possible scenarios: (i) he is right and the trunk flare is indeed about an inch underneath what you see in the pic and the trunk flare is planted 1-2 inches above existing grade which is right acc. to the website below or (ii) The tree was planted too deep in the nursery and his definition of trunk flare is where the trunk meets the root ball. If the latter is the case, it might be too late because I can keep removing soil until I hit the root flare, but if the root flare is below grade then that means the planting hole originally dug was too deep and there will be a low level right around the trunk where there will be water logging which might be worse off than current situation :( What do you think? Same goes for the magnolia. My other question: I am guessing I can deal with this during the Thanksgiving weekend as it is not imminent and how big would be the main roots from the root flare for a 1.75" caliper b&b tree - I don't want to accidentally damage those and then it will be a point of new return ;-) Would scratches or dents inflicted on the roots by a small plastic hand-held shovel be ok or entry points for bugs? An interesting website I came across: http://www.cmg.colostate.edu/gardennotes/633.html

The one that totally wowed me this year was a hosta that I haven't heard too much about here - Essence of Summer. All green, which usually isn't my favorite, but so elegant with beautiful and extremely fragrant flowers for a month or so in mid summer. This is it's first year. I have a pretty small yard and actually don't want my hostas to grow big too quickly. But this one keep encouraging to grow and multiply - I'd love to have it take over. For a second choice I have to agree with the people recommending OBL. Mine isn't growing quickly, but even with just four leaves it definitely has a presence in the garden. Soothing but interesting, elegant but down to earth. I feel like I need some language similar to what wine experts use to describe.