No worries. There is not a tougher bulb than crinums. I cut back nasty foliage every year. My clumps get rusty leaves and sometimes do some browning and dieing back in hot dry spells. I wouldn't advise you to cut the entire clump back to the ground, but removing damaged leaves will probably only do them good. They will love you even more if you give them a nice soaking of manure tea or other organic nitrogen. Crinums are, perhaps, my favorite bulb. And this year has been a spectacular year for them. You will notice that established clumps of Milk and Wines like you have will bloom 3 days after a deep soaking rain from spring all the way to frost. Some of my clumps had 30 scapes back in the spring. Positively show stopping.

I completely understand!! I was whining here a few days ago because storms broke about 2 feet off the tops of my gorgeous better boys. Like you, this is the first year I started completely from seed, plus everybody was setting fruit and looking so happy. I'm trying to be positive, so here's what I did: - completely broke off some of the bigger snapped stalks and have them rooting in water in the house [ sang Taps in my head as I snipped off the set fruit and blooms :( ]. Since they were already so big, I'm hoping to use them as a jump start on a fall crop - take it as a lesson learned: buy taller stakes next year or start pinching off top growth Thanks for the info that, even though the stalks are bent/broken, they can still be saved. Can anyone share more info about splinting plants? I did something similar for stalks that weren't completely broken - Just pushed them back together some, then tied to a new taller stake with soft cloth right at the break point. Is that right? thanks and sorry for the loss!!

But Rhizo, the carbohydrate reserves can't be produced without fertilizer nutrients (or leaves, or sunlight). Concern about fertilizing stressed roses should focus on the availability of water-- fertilizer reduces the uptake of water, and that is a problem if the root system is damaged, or irrigation is not feasible, or drying conditions are severe. Otherwise, fertilizer in moderation does not stress roses. These roses are not stressed for moisture-- quite the contrary, they currently have an excess of roots over foliage. Unless forced into semi-dormancy by drought, the plants will start refoliating in two weeks, drawing on stored carbs to do so. Then the micro-factories in the leaves will have nearly 3 months to produce fuel that will be used both for growth and to replenish the reserves. To do that, they need fertilizer nutrients. I would remove any badly shredded leaves. If there is a reasonable number of healthy leaves, I would fertilize now-- if not, in two weeks.

Seedmama, See there, I really can read your mind. Now, I hope you're taking care of yourself and not wearing yourself out too much helping everyone else. You have to save some energy in case one of the next weather monsters hits y'all too. By the way, I saw your thread on 'alerts' and agreed with every word. I like it when the severe weather threads stay high on the page long enough for everyone to see them, but there are times we need follow-up info from folks who are seeing new alerts or new developments and want to share them. It seems like a fine line to walk, doesn't it? Today, I am going to keep posting new alerts as new threads for as long as I can. It might not be all that long if the storms develop here first and move north/northeast. I have watched huge amounts of moisture stream overhead from Texas, across the Red River, above and beyond us and towards all of y'all. I don't like that. I am afraid all the Gulf moisture in the air could contribute to significant storms. It is so nice that your shelter is open to your friends and neighbors. Ours is too, but it is just one of those little in-ground ones that is about 6' x 8' so it doesn't hold huge numbers of people. I've already touched base with some of the neighbors to make sure they know they're welcome to climb into the shelter. I urged them to just come over, open the door and climb in, even if we aren't at home. I've been in the kitchen baking cookies and muffins so I'll have something to feed hungry firefighters if they go out on search/rescue/recovery missions during this round of storms, in addition to their usual fire and accident calls. Hopefully, we won't need the cookies and muffins and I can just freeze them and save them for another bad day. The earthquakes here surprised me a tiny bit when we moved here, but not a lot. We even have occasional earthquakes in parts of north central Texas, although they are less frequent than the ones in central OK. The large number of quakes the last 18 months or so in central OK does seem a tiny bit excessive. We moved here in mid-April 1999 and didn't have a tornado shelter. Then the May 3, 1999, tornado outbreak occurred and we didn't even know it. Because internet and cell service were almost nonexistent here then (later on, the addition of new cell towers fixed the cell phone issue but internet access was much slower) and local TV reception was very poor (DirectTV saved us), we didn't even know tornadoes were occurring in the OKC area until our phone starting ringing with folks from Texas calling to see if we'd been hit by tornadoes. That year, you couldn't get a tornado shelter here because of the huge demand in the OKC area, but we had a shelter put in early in 2000. Prior to this year, we probably hadn't been in that tornado shelter but maybe once or twice a year and some years not at all. We've already been in it at least 3 times this year because of storms. It does make a great root cellar too. I'm hoping none of us have to flee to the shelters today or tonight, but know it is likely some of us will. I think I am almost more afraid of the hail which they keep describing as potentially larger than baseballs than the possibility of a tornado. Neither one is a pleasant option though. I won't blame you for the earthquakes because you redeemed yourself by creating a whole new method for lasagna vegetable composing/bed building and strawberry gardening. : ) I think the genius of what you did there gives you redemption for causing the earthquakes in Oklahoma. C'mon, on a day like today, we have to find something to laugh about..... Dawn