Last year, my bulbs were in lawless conditions. I bought a children pool and put them in it in their pots. It was easier to water them this way. I just poured the water in and they all got some. But then some rains came and completely drenched the bulbs. They were neck up to the water and they stayed that way for a long time by the time I noticed it and let the water away. So I ended up with most of the bulbs shrunk to tiny bulblets that I didn't think would even survive. Then I had to move to the new house, so I unpotted them, cut the leaves and put them in the new wine cooler I bought for this purpose to make sure that the bulbs do not freeze down. A month later I noticed that the wine cooler froze down and even killed about 10 bulbs. I returned it to the store and just bought a huge standing fridge that had the freezer part separately. I kept my bulbs in that fridge. Then I planted them up from Summer, hoping that they would still come back to me. And to my amazement: More than 50 percent FLOWERED! They shrunk, they were sitting in water, they froze down, they were in dormancy for a half a year or LONGER, and they BLOOMED! I am still floored by some of them. Now, they are out in the flower bed, fattening up. I hope they enjoy the situation. So you see, once they want to bloom, they just bloom, even if they kill themselves.

Thanks,Jessica.Very nice.Seems most are a bit smaller after this wierd winter.My FB is budded also on 5 short scapes.Please post yours when it opens,and I'll show mine,no matter what it looks like!lol Betsy

LOL.. Nice to hear from you again m8. I am just sitting it at the livingroom window everyday and moving it at night to where it sleeps..lol The very young and non established pods fell off and some of the leaves BUT the big pods which are full size have a good hold onto the plant! there are 22 of them so i will get the seeds out of them for next years growing. I think i may have gave it too much tomato feed last week as i used a different thing to put the water into? What an ideot.."Hit me a slap" I put 20ml into 1 litre of water instead of 20ml into 9 litres so hope it doesnt hurt it too much? Time will tell.!!! Cya's later Arthur.

lynartist, you make some good points! GN Builders, makes sense that the boards may seem dry, but actually not be due to moisture from below. If one does all that work---prepping, cleaning, sanding---and then applying a few coats---that's a lot of work! And if it only lasts a year or two, I say it's not worth it! We are entering a new phase of life (as seniors) and we won't have the energy to be doing this kind of work over and over. In my opinion, the tree has caused a lot of problems for us. Not only limiting the kind of patio/deck that we can have, but plugging up our eavestrough during torrential storms due to climate change. We've had 3 instances of water in the basement because of that. I think we need a patio/deck that can last many years. If something were to happen to my husband, I am not prepared to be repainting that deck every year nor cleaning our eavestrough about 25 times in a year! AND, every man needs to have a women put things into perspective! LOL