Hi Seiko, I'm interested in trading for roses in the fall. In particular for Folksinger and Vineyard Song. I do have Mme. Legras de St. Germain potted up since spring. I can start rooting my roses for you now if you let me know which ones you are interested in.(I just started my rose rooting project for the year, lol) I also have a beautiful tuberous begonia that I have pics of. It could use a good home for the winter. I think I could find my geranium daffs. I know I could find a few of my Festival Blue Hyacinths. We could probably figure other things you would like also. Remy Here is a link that might be useful: My Trade Page

I'm not sure how much help I can be, but I'll give it a shot... First of all, there is no one-size-fits-all watering schedule a grower can keep when it comes to containerized plants. Each plant will use water, and water will evaporate, at a different rates... based upon plant type, size, pot size, location, medium used, weather, humidity, etc... So, any potted plant should only be watered when it needs to be watered. I use a combination of my finger/sense of touch, and the wooden skewer method, to determine the moisture content within each pot. Even when soil feels dry to the touch near the surface, there could be plenty of moisture deeper within the pot, hence insertion of a wooden skewer to test for moisture, and a rather dry feeling medium may even contain moisture molecules at a small percentage that we can't feel with our own sense of touch. The Tulips, Lilies, Allium, and Hyacinthoides can be kept potted, and the pots buried up the rim in a garden, then mulched for the winter... as long as they're buried at their recommended depth, those types of bulbs are hardy to northern climes. However, squirrels and other rodents love to feast on them, so once the pots are buried, you may want to lay some screen over them before mulching... then remember to remove it early enough so the new shoots can get through. Some of the other plant types you mention are not hardy to your zone 5, and will require being kept in relative warmth. I don't think covering anything that sits up on a pedestal will do much good, as windchills can be quite devastating to plant roots that don't have the protection of being at ground level or buried, and protected with mulch of some kind. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge of your various plant types will be along to help... I'm in zone 5b, and bring all my tender potted plants indoors for winter, and try to place them where they will get the most light, treating them more as houseplants that are just resting for winter. Anything hardy to my zone either gets planted and mulched, or goes into an unheated, and otherwise unused, garage building once dormant. I group my potted perennials and shrubs together in plastic baby pools inside the garage, and I close up the building until early spring. I will check occasionally to see if the soil is dry, and if so, I will spread a few shovels full of snow over them to simulate nature and its winter moisture source. When dormancy breaks in spring, I begin opening the east facing garage doors to let in light, and as soon as I feel the weather is stable enough, I bring everything back outside for another growing season. I don't know how much I've helped you, but I wish you luck. :-)

I have some questions about the elephant ears. Last year, I cut one of them back and threw the tuber in a shoe box and left it in my cool basement, but it dried to a pulp and I chucked it come spring. The other plant I left potted in the basement, the leaves all yellowed out and drooped to the point that come spring, it was all cut back, but there were new eyes that grew in. It flourished come spring in the sun. This past winter, I just left it potted as a houseplant in a south facing window, I watered maybe once a month...still I think I overwatered as I usually do with my houseplants, but now I have maybe one good stem left. I'll put it outside once the weather warms up. I was surprised to learn after the fact that Elephant Ears are more a shade than sun plant, it has done well for me on my patio in full sun. My question is, are you cutting it back and placing the tuber in a plastic bag for the winter? What's the point of the paper pet shavings? And no air flow?

I know better, almost never got the first person to pay me. I didn't use to have any problem with swaps, 1 or 2 out of 30 or so would not uphold their end of the agreement but this is ridiculous. I sent extra stuff, like plumeria, epi cuttings, stuff to fill in the boxes and after bugging me about shipping for weeks they won't even reply now. Good luck on finding cuttings. It is a lot of work to mail plants, I sent rooted cuttings, you have to wrap and protect them, go get boxes, go mail boxes, $$$ involved, not cheap anymore. BAH!