picked 2 divas off my mud room potted plant this am! Have gotten more since I added some fertilizer and watching moisture level more closely than before. Nothing from tasty jade since last post. To be clear - only 1 plant of each, planted into the pots in march, kept under lights until the mudroom was warm enough. Only get sun till about noon - and with only the 2 plants - getting about 3-4 cukes/week. I want 3-4 cukes/day! These were just experiments though - and waiting on the outdoor cukes....regular, straight eight, marketmore, etc. next time - 2 of each indoors!

Msbumble, I'm not in your region but we also have a cool damp Spring well into June and are still having a run of warm or hot days. Of the varieties you listed, Cornel just has its first 3 blooms here, Fire Magics have each had about 3-4 flowers, and Buffie G is showing pink color but won't unfurl its first bud no matter how much I beg. All were planted in very late May, if not June. So I think you're right on schedule, or at least we have similar bloom times on these. I will say that the Fire Magic might have been earlier but both plants were shaded too much by towering neighbor dahlias. Here's Cornel Preciousbane, I use a lot of compost every year just to improve the soil. Unless you have a lot of manure in yours, I don't think it would be too high in nitrogen. Full sun and ample watering seem to be the best ticket to blooming here, and patience doesn't hurt in many cases either. That package labelling mix up seems to be a real epidemic at the big box stores.

Maryjo, My peony poppies really didnt look like much (leaves not very tall) so I figured it'd be a while. My pansies and violas have been starting to flower this past week...what else? Not much else wintersown (yet), and I know many wont flower this year, but as long as they thrive and grow :) My WS tomatoes took forever and were tiny. I started some indoors that THRIVED, esp'lly when I transferred them to grow bags. I have never been really good at starting seeds, but this year I started a few types of seeds (and not all at once) under my kitchen cabinet lights! :) The thing with the 2 liter bottles is they will dry out faster than larger containers, but just as long as you realize that, and keep up with them in the spring, they are a good starting container. I didnt have problems with bunnies...and I KNOW we have at least 2 in the yard/back woods as I've seen them For some reason they have not bothered my seedlings; but someone said if they are big enough they shouldnt be interested. What about putting bird netting on/around them? I did that when my seedlings were very small in containers but they weren't ready to plant out, as I have a squirrel who is always looking for food! Obnoxiously so. He comes onto my screened porch thru the doggie door!

It's all about the learning curve, I see. I made Ingrid's mistake of not understanding how much amendment the soil in my garden needed, producing possibly the most epic of all my failures. If Ingrid and I averaged our two soils we might do nicely, but that's not how gardens work. I've also made Molly's mistake of not thinking of flowering times when I planted flowers for combined effect. Nik's conditions are hard, and the only good thing I can say about them is that his garden is going to be distinctive because he's forced to choose plants that will grow there, and they'll have a particular character. We have a few areas where our predecessors piled rocks. DH didn't like the idea of them as refuges for snakes and had a couple of loads of topsoil dumped over them. Since then they've been valued parts of the garden, since they're the only zones we have which are actually free draining. Marlorena and John, thanks for the suggestions. I looked into 'Apple Blossom', as being the most likely, but the clematis I was was white, early, large, and looked like a C. montana type. So the obvious occurred to me,and I searched for a white Clematis montana, and found one. I think that's the plant I saw. I may be looking for potential planting sites in my wood for clematis and a white Lady Banks, though this last will have to be propagated starting next fall. I don't usually take cuttings of my monstrous climbers, as I don't know where I might put them.