Lol, poor Daniella. Ask him if he will do my laundry too. I throw it all in together and everything looks like crap, lol. I was telling John about this and he said ohhh good idea about the pots and the roots now that winter is coming he is wanting to bring in more of them so he is liking the idea of burying the pots in the ground then lifting the pots for the winter. He forgets before we did all these flower beds and I told him about this he told me I was crazy and why would I want to dig a hole and buy a pot. Just put the dang things in the ground and leave them there he said, lol. How soon he forgets now that he is getting excited that they are going to start blooming, lol. I bet we have sunken pots next year, lol. The one I had last year bloomed in the garage nearly all winter long. I think he is remembering that and realizing all those in the ground are going to have to be cut down and he will miss them blooming. Who wants to make a bet he digs up some of his to bring in the house instead of cutting them, lol.

A pruning saw (or any small saw) will cut through roots too thick for pruners. A small spade will cut better with your weight on it than a large wide one (the stiletto heel principle). Then rock the plant from side to side- and cut more roots underneath it. How about inviting some friends round for a gardening party (a bit like a paint party when you get them to help decorate the house), and you provide the refreshments. Tell them it's a "green gym".

I've taken an interest in learning about Florida gardening because I plan to move down there eventually. What I've read again and again about discouraging nematodes is to maintain a heavy layer of organic mulch. This will eventually break down and improve your soil. Some people mix in cheap clay kitty litter to make their soil heavier. Another possibility is to heavily underplant roses with Marigolds. There is one seed strain of French Marigolds in particular which tested as being very effective at deterring root-knot nematodes -- Tagetes patula 'Ground Control' (aka 'Single Gold'). The one caveat is that the effects won't be seen until the following year, and to maintain the effect, you'll want to replant them every year. As far as planting too deep -- I think many here would say I am guilty of this, but there hasn't been any negative effect which I can see. When I was putting this garden together, I planted my roses (own-root bands that were grown-on in pots for a few months) directly into the native soil in late Summer 2013. Prior to planting them, I had laid down sheets of cardboard to smother weeds and grass, and covered that with trimmings from a tree I was cutting back. This accumulated to about three inches, but it was a very "airy" three inches. Over all that, I put down an additional 6-8" of "proper" mulch (partially composted shredded wood chips). At first, I made concave "dishes" around each rose to allow water to be directed towards their roots and keep mulch away from the canes as I kept reading I was supposed to do, but after the first Winter, the beds were pretty much leveled out. In Spring, I worked an additional 2" of composted manure into that layer of mulch. This meant that what was once the border between canes and roots was now about 8-10" below the surface. Why did I do this? I wanted to give the roses an "early start" on having deep roots for getting water, and anticipated that canes buried beneath the mulch line would eventually root further up, allowing for easier access to fertilizer applied at the surface. Companion perennials were planted directly into this "mulch/compost" layer in Spring 2014, and they grew like gangbusters in their first year. Last Autumn, I wanted to continue adding organic matter to the beds, so I "harvested" fallen tree leaves and spread them to a "fluffy" three inches thick. I also started collecting used coffee grounds from Starbucks -- one 13gal kitchen garbage can-full per day -- and spread this about 2-3" over the leaves. It took about three months to complete. Winter snow has packed this down a bit, and the previous year's additions have started breaking down, so where I'm at now is about where I was after the first layer of mulch -- about 6-8" above the original soil line. This week, I started some early pruning. While there is some snow still remaining in half of the garden, where it is gone there was already life in the top layer of coffee grounds and leaves -- various soil critters are waking up and finding lots of food waiting for them. I've noticed some freeze damage (naturally) on some rose canes, but nothing soft and mushy which would indicate "cane rot". True, this could emerge later in the season, but I also never saw it last Spring when the roses' canes were also buried to about the same level. Why is this not harming my roses? Perhaps because what's covering the canes is actively being broken down by the various organisms in the soil, and that process is different than simply being a blanket of "wet" around the rose canes. Worms and critters keep moving the material around, and fungi digesting the material are sopping up the extra moisture. I don't know for sure -- all I can say is that I don't see any negative effects. :-) ~Christopher

In what was supposed to be all white freesia, I seems to have gotten at least one yellow in each bag. Yellow isn't my favorite flower color. If I'm super careful, can I dig up the yellow freesias and surrounding dirt, then pot them up to give them away as little Easter presents? Or will they promptly die? If there's a good chance that they will die in a move... I may as well just pull them. Thanks!