Some of my annuals are looking a little sad and slightly yellow. I gave them some fish emulsion today, thinking they might need something. I'm sure any nutrients they were getting has been washed away. Luckily I haven't planted my new daylilies. We just dug out a bunch of grass and did the lasagna thing, so they'll go there soon. Clay Soil! I had a new variagated lilac from last year that we dug a hole for and put it in for the winter, pot and all. I wanted to make sure it was going to get enough sun. Well, I took it out of it's hole yesterday, and the hole had about 5 inches of water in it that took all day to drain! Weeper, stupid heavy clay soil is right! Now where am I going to put that lilac?

Thats funny because I usually use Miracle Gro but got Scotts instead this time. Well I scooped out again. I went pretty deep Some of the top roots are now exposed. If it grows back again in the next few days (crossing fingers) I will go ahead and replant but I want to avoid that since I just repotted them a few months back and I don't want to shock the plants. Hopefully I got it all this time. I will just have to wait and see. Thanks

Not a good idea to feed while plants are actually flowering, if you do, it'll cut short on flowering and begin growth. Plants use food to promote growth, not flowers. Often annuals, including tubers such as lilies, will go into dormancy following the flowering season, so it's possible you're white one is in the winding down faze. When that happens completely you can take the bulbs and store them away until next season, usually late winter. I have some Amaryllas, I think they are, that have popped out of the ground, put up stems and are developing their large flower heads. They disappear completely in later summer and I forget they're there until the cycle begins again. As the one next to your white one is healthy and green, I suspect that's what is happening to the white one. Not sick, just going into dormancy following flowering. B.

Jayme needs a haircut. ;-) "I don't believe I'm heavy handed on watering because it rarely floods through the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot and when this does happen I always empty the tray so that it's not standing in water." We know your soil holds water, but let me show you why your contention doesn't. Let's say I have a horrible soil that holds 6" of perched water at container capacity. Since that's probably Greek to most growers, it means that after gravity is done pushing water out of a recently saturated soil and it has JUST stopped draining, the bottom 6" of soil is fully saturated and essentially airless. This means that the function of ALL roots within that 6" tall column of saturated soil is being limited by a lack of oxygen. Using your contention, everything is fine if I only add enough water to raise the ht of the saturated soil column to 5-7/8", because water won't drain until the ht of the saturated soil column is greater than 6". Essentially, there is no difference of note between a saturated soil column of 6" vs 5-7/8"; which means that over-watering is surely in play as a potential limitation. Too, if you water consistently so no water exits the pot, you ensure ALL the dissolved solids in fertilizer solutions and tapwater remain in the soil. This increases the mineral salt level in the soil (TDS) and can very quickly skew the ratio of a singular nutrient to all of the others, which creates another significant issue. I can clearly see from the list of ingredients that you unwittingly made a very water-retentive soil. Compare what your soil looks like to these soils, which are what I grow in: You can clearly see there are going to be large pores between the high % of large particles that will be filled w/air instead of water after the soil stops draining subsequent to being saturated. Ideally, you would move in that direction. I promise it will make a BIG difference in your ability to manage your plants' moisture and fertility needs. This will provide information that will help you turn your plant around. and This link, which goes into considerable detail about How Water Behaves in Container Soils, probably represents the largest step forward you can make as a container gardener. If you make the effort to understand the concept it outlines, it should change the way you look at container media and significantly increase the rewards you get from your growing efforts. Al