Like last year I bought enough of certain "named" Tulips to plant in front garden and in containers on back deck. No problem in either place last year...grew and bloomed. This year particular "name" isn't coming up in either ground or containers. While looking up names of tulips I remembered that last year I bought ALL Darwin Hybrids. Late last summer when ordering I read on web sites that Triumphs did better in containers than others so I bought them from Scheepers. I had 3 named Triumph Tulips: Spryng, Jan Ohms & King's Orange. 'King's Orange' foliage seems mostly to have come up in containers & in ground. 'Spryng" has pathetic foliage nubs sticking above soil in containers with a few larger sized nubs growing in ground. 'Jan Ohms' has nothing in containers with some nubs up in ground. Of course, this was delicate color to which I was really looking forward. They were all planted in late September with enough time to grow roots. This year I even further improved drainage in both container mix and in bed where they went into ground for better drainage. Although all Tulips grew/bloomed fine last year they were rotted in ground by Fall when I checked them so were replaced. Ones in containers were rotted by the time I took them out in June to replace with annuals. Daffodils that were mixed in same containers with Tulips were removed & stored in June and ground planted in Fall. They're fine and just started to bloom last week. I'm wondering about bulbs shipped last Fall or something to do with Holland crop since even Hyacinths & Iris Reticulata from Scheepers aren't doing great. Hyacinth blooms are very sparse on 3 colors and Iris blooms lasted 2-3 days. This theory probably won't hold up as I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of people who planted Dutch and/or Scheepers bulbs that had no problem. The container bulbs were up on deck under overhang all winter (like last year) until one sizable snow in early March when they got few inches of snow blown on top of them. I didn't clear it off figuring they hadn't had much, if any, moisture over winter. If that is what rotted bulbs in containers why didn't all 3 "names" rot or why did same "name" not produce in ground either right next to other "name" that did grow? Next year I'm going back to all Darwin Hybrids although it's probably some specific set of events that I can't see or blame for this year's poor showing. Maybe nothing more than letting 6 inches of snow melt into containers early March but that wouldn't explain why same named Tulips didn't perform in ground. Mysteries of gardening life. I'm just treating Tulips as annuals from now on even when planted in ground.

Uh oh, it sounds like your plant has rotted. Do you have a photo? If the whole stem is brown your best chance of getting anything is rooting the leaves, like you said. However, if the leaves are discolored and wrinkled (as tends to happen when the plant rots) they won't root. You will need healthy leaves for that. What I do is just put the leaves on top of some soil in a room with lots of light but keep them out of the direct sun. I wait until some roots have come out (generally 2-3 weeks), then mist them once a week. Baby plants will eventually start to grow, and I re-pot them once they have grown enough to use up all the fluids in the original leaf (it will shrivel up and fall off).

There is nothing wrong with the tomatoes that have the virus other than their looks BER is not caused by a virus. Also, it's not simply the appearance that's affected -- the part of the fruit affected by BER is inedible. === you should remove the infected ones whether you eat them or not, so they do not infect the newer ones That use of "infected" is correct but misleading. Fruit which have BER are infected in the sense of having that condition, and being damaged by it. However, BER is not an infection. Fruit affected by BER are not infectious; they do not contain an infectious agent (like a bacterium or a virus). They cannot transmit the condition to other fruit. There may be secondary fungal infections, but AFAIK they do not happen often. The main advantage in removing BER-damaged fruit is not to prevent fungus attacking other fruit, but to allow the plant to use its resources on usable fruit rather than on fruit which already have BER. === I think it might be stress do to water. The soil dries out quickly and the plants look a little wilty. So then I give them water (too much maybe? How much should potted tomatoes get a day?). Sometimes I water twice a day when it gets really hot. Do you think the fluxuation in moisture is maybe causing this? Should I maybe move them to a bit more shade? Should I mulch them? Water more? Water less? Water deeply? Give only sips of Water? 7 gallons should be a good pot size. However, black pots absorb heat from the sun, and may overheat the roots. Covering the pot with something white, light-colored, or silver will deflect some of the heat. And definitely mulch your tomatoes, regardless of whether they're planted in containers or in the ground! Mulch not only keeps the soil from drying out quite so fast, but it keeps the roots cooler. It keeps down weed growth as well. And it also lessens the chance of disease -- rainwater or watering-can water striking the soil can bounce soil microorganisms onto the leaves, which can result in Bad Diseases You Don't Want to Have. Any time tomato plants look wilty, they need water. Withholding water will not help them. If they need water twice a day, then water them twice a day. Water until you see water coming out of the drain-holes. But it's not always that easy. Peat, when dry, doesn't easily absorb water. When a pot filled with a peat-based mix dries out, the peat shrinks. Then when you water, the water just runs down the air spaces at the sides of the pot, leading you to believe the plant has enough moisture -- but nothing could be farther from the truth: the plant is actually dying of thirst. You may have to water slowly and repeatedly to really get the peat moist again. Small containers are an advantage here: you can pick them up and set them in a saucer full of water until they soak up as much as they can.

Yes but they vary a great deal. This study puts 'Nova Zembla' in the fully susceptible category, albeit not as bad as some others: https://web.archive.org/web/20151220161750/http://www.holdenarb.org/education/documents/krebs-wilson2002.pdf  I don't think any plants in that category should be promoted outside the coastal northeast or PNW as mass-marketed plants. Especially, as you say, with high summer temps becoming more common. It's different if Rarefind wants to sell them. That big box stores and their wholesalers do something is neither here nor there. A bad idea is a bad idea. "but with a couple of weeks of temperatures in the upper 90's accompanied by drenching rains, any variety is at risk." Well the Southgates and previous non-patented R. hyperythum hybrids, bred in Louisiana, seem to tolerate these conditions just fine. Assuming they are in reasonably well drained soil. I actually have mixed feelings about them though. If they become gas station plants throughout the southeastern US, seems to increase the likelihood of further evolution of pathogens to attack them. Will hopefully never happen. I'm using those as rootstocks for PNW cultivars.