I have the fall blooming variety "Snow Flurry" and it has proven to be very hardy here, with absolutely no problems of dieback or leaf burn. I've had it for about 10 years now and it always performs. A few hundred blooms are normally produced, and it blooms from mid-October into December, but the season may be short if the weather gets cold early. Then the remaining buds won't get a chance to open. But the vegetative growth is totally hardy. The only problem is keeping it sheared now and then so it doesn't overrun the area! I also have 4 spring bloomers. Two each of "April Blush" and "April Dawn". They do fine. One of the Blush is about 10 years old and died almost to the ground in the severe winter of 2003-2004 (Jan 2004 was brutal!). I left it alone and in June of that year I finally saw a tiny green speck almost down to the ground on 2-inch-thick wood. Right now it's about 5 feet tall and 3.5 feet wide. It has about 60 buds and the first one opened today. So don't be too quick to give up, and cut back ONLY where you are sure the wood is dead (by scraping the bark - if there's any green at all, leave it alone). Good luck!

Tom, I gardened with an electric fence for three years. This year I have a fenced in yard that surrounds the house and an extension to that in electric fencing. My E-fence was and is only 12" above the ground. It stopped all the farm animals (except chickens), dogs and grandchildren from crossing the boundary. Each had to experience the consequence before they learned. Deer will probably be the same. If I turned mine off for some reason the goats could sense immediately that it was not functioning and wasted no time in climbing over it. Once it was plugged back in they seemed to sense it and stayed far away. Though there are 12 or more deer in any direction of the house at any given time they never come into the yard. The dogs keep them away so I never had to test my fence with them. I do know that it takes, at minimum, a 7 ft. regular fence to keep them out. I'm not sure if electric would need to be that high as well or not but in my experience they are so used to clearing a 4 ft. barbed wire fence that they would probably hit the wire if it's just slightly higher. They take out the top string of barbed wire quite frequently around here. In my mind I'm picturing some poor deer caught between your 4ft. fence and the 7ft. high electic wire and it's not a pretty picture lol. Hmmm...wish I could help you more with that one. Now that I have a fence the first issue was to keep weeds/grass or whatever from climbing under and spreading into the area. I solved that by placing fiberglass shingles under the fence. No way am I weed-eating around the entire thing every week, it takes me most of the week just to mow everything. My mower wheels sit right on top of the shingles and I can zip all along the edge of the fence. I do live in the country so the appearanc of that is not all that important for me...effectiveness counts here. My fence is 2x4 welded wire and I like it very much. I have experienced chain link in the past but this is much nicer because it is, from a distance, nearly invisible (Mine does not have top rails or bottom rails, just posts). In other words I can see the view beyond it very clearly. When pulling into the yard I can see everyone of my flowers unobstructed (and so can my guests) and I can see out into the farmyard very clearly to keep an eye on what all the critters and the family are doing. It's also a very large instant trellis, right now I have cucumbers growing up a portion of it. The only other thing I can think of is that you'll have to be diligent about making sure your family and guests close the gate! ;) Good Luck! MeMo

Hi Deanna, Bulbs store energy for the plant that can tide it over during rough times. So, rotted stems are like busted stems, as long as the bulb is large enough to support itself through next year (its not a tiny bulblet) it will come back, just a little smaller. This may result in a smaller plant with fewer blooms the first season but it will otherwise be fine. The thing to check is whether or not the bulbs have healthy looking roots. In the Fall if you find that the bulb and roots are rotten I wouldn't bother to plant it. Stressed bulbs often will decide to take a season off and not send up foliage (or abort growth already started). Instead it will spend its time growing new roots. So that doesn't mean they are dead. It sounds like your stems got the fungal disease botrytis possibly from overwatering. With your curled up new sprouts (possibly lieing along the soil) this would be an easy thing to have happen. Putting late planted bulbs in pots is usually a good idea since you can use sterile well draining soil and, depending on where you put the pot, control watering and sun. So don't hesitate to do that in the future. Botrytis strikes plenty of lilies in the garden as well. I'd cut away any diseased foliage (and throw it out securely) and spray the remaining foliage and the pots soil surface with a rose fungal spray. I've included a link with some info. -Helen Here is a link that might be useful: Plantlilies botytis link

I had my son when I was 17 (almost 18). My second son when I was 20. They are 2.5 years apart. Then I had my daughter at 21. She is 10 months after my son. Having two 10 months apart was like having twins most of the times, double diapers, bottles, etc. I am sure I didn't get to enjoy them as babies as much as if I had them further apart. But, they did entertain each other when they were small. Definitely no sibling rivalry when I came home from the hospital.. he was too young to understand. The older one was a 'helper' and he never once acted jealous in any way over either baby. He was always offering to help and loved to help take care of the babies. The boys, being 2.5 years apart was a little better. They all played together and I was able to work full time once my daughter went to school. (I only worked part time when they were babies) The toughest ages for the group was when they were between middle school and high school. That was when they squabbled most. (starting around 10-11 for the boys to start teasing their sister) but once they got into high school, they didn't bother her anymore. Then, they were more interested in whether her friends are cute, etc. I'm now raising my step daughter. She's 9 and my daughter is 18 so she's more of an only child and it's a lot tougher I think. She seems to demand more attention because she gets bored. When my kids were younger, I could say go play and all would play with each other, never a complaint. I tell my stepdaughter to go play and she acts like I told her to walk the plank. (of course there may also be differences in personality to account for that) but I think it was better to have all my kids close together. The other part is that they all turned 18 in three years and are now all college age. Unfortunately, my oldest did not want to go to college, but he's thinking of joining the military. My second son is in college and my daughter is thinking about it. They will both have to work to help pay for college because there is no way I could afford two or three kids in college. That is the down side for me. (I was a single parent so I didn't plan for college and/or have much savings) BTW, I'm 39 and all my kids are legally 'adults' and if I hadn't married my husband, I'd soon have an empty nest. It depends on you and your husband's feelings on it, but I had my first at 17 so I am looking forward to having an empty nest and being able to travel without a worry in the world (like babysitters).