Hi, everyone. I haven't checked in in awhile as I have been planting pansies. Next week it's off to our annual VanZyverden bulb sale to stock up on tulips! This, of course, is an annual pilgrimage since they are pulled up and discarded after their bloom time in the spring. Yes, Lady, I do grow quite alot of bulbs, now that I think about it. Over the years, they have become pretty near the top of my favorites list. I have LOTS of daffodils and that population keeps growing every year between adding new varieties and dividing the clumps I have in the yard. I particularly like jonquils, so have lots of those. My second favorite would be zephyranthes (rain lilies) closely followed by crinums. In addition I love Dutch Iris, hyacinths, ipheion, camassia, byzantine glads, amaryllis, arum, spanish bluebells, leucojums, oxalis, eucomis, canna, crocosmia, lycoris, and oxblood lilies. I have tried numerous others over the years, but the ones that are listed are the ones that have persisted and multiplied for me. Well, not the hyacinths, but everything else. :) I hope your bulbs are a huge success for you. Daffodils were my very first bulbs to ever plant. I got my first ones from my beautician. I admired them, so she walked outside and dug up part of a clump for me. That was more than twenty years ago and I still have some of the progeny from that handfull of treasure she gave me. Nothing in my garden gives more pleasure for less effort than bulbs.

I have a similar problem with my zucchini and cucumbers. My zucchini have gotten white spots on the leaves and some of them had died. I kept getting the fruit and as a new gardener, I didn't worry about it. After a week or two I noticed that most of the branches were dying and when I lifted some, the stem broke just above the ground. It was rotted through. All three of my plants have died and I removed them all from the garden. We have had a wet summer and I may have over watered them, though my soil drains pretty well. Next, my neighbor's cucumbers (which are separated from my garden by a link fence) have all withered and died. I am now noticing spots on my cucumber leaves, some have even become holes, and the vines are beginning to wither. Is there anything I can do to prevent further damage or what can I do to prevent this problem next year? Should I spray milk on them?

I had the same problem this year with a florist hydrangea that I've been trying for years to get blooms out of. I did the same as you, just kind of wrapped it in burlap, and surrounded it with bags of leaves and covered it with pine needles. Like you, when I uncovered the plant, I had lots of bright, healthy green buds, most of which shrivelled up and fell off within weeks. It could be that even though it seemed warm enough to me to uncover the plant, it may have been too early for the hydrangea. However, more likely as Luis points out, the straw or in my case pine needles and bags just didn't provide as much protection as it needed once everything settled beneath months of snow, and rain. Anyway, sorry that happened, I know how frustrating it is. The links Luis provided have great information, I read a lot of Hayseedman's thread last fall and will probably try some different methods this coming fall again. If I haven't moved by then, in which case it will be someone else's problem. :p

I will say that they are loved by hummingbirds. I pulled up all of mine one year, as they are extremely easily to pull by the roots. Still had seedlings, though few, the next year from neighboring areas. But, now I let them grow in some areas because they do prevent the growth of other more pernicious weeds. Somebody on a another forum thread lamented that after they pulled all their jewelweed the area was populated by far more difficult weeds. I'm not recommending keeping them, but rather encouraging you to pull judiciously. I pull in the areas where the soil will already be shaded or covered by plants, which discourages weeds. Any open soil areas, or areas where I don't have a plan for plants to go there yet, I keep the weed. If you don't want reseeding but want to protect the soil from other weeds growing you could always just shear off the flowers this year. Just more information if it helps.