Why I Oughta...

A mature gardener can edit their garden.  I'm not there yet, but learning everyday.  And, I've made an edit to the garden that put me out of my comfort zone a little bit:  removing a tree.  The tree in question was one that I didn't plant - it was a volunteer.  A Silver Maple.  I figured out what it was last Fall and posted about Silver Maples - and the paradox of Silver Maples .   I let this grow as a volunteer and then last year it LEPT up.  Big time growth.  That put my antenna up a little bit. Things are NOT supposed to grow that fast.  Then, this past week, I noticed this foliage: Lovely, right?  Lace-like.  Purples and greens.  Almost Japanese-maple-ish.   So, I went online (again) and thought about the Silver Maple.  That foliage was striking.  But, I needed to re-think things.   A quick look around the Web and you'll discover that not only are Silver Maples fast-growing, they also have three primary issues:  weak limbs (come down in a storm), litter (helicopters

For the past few Christmas seasons, we've grown Amaryllis flowers from bulbs with (mostly) good results and have learned a little bit about different bulbs and planting situations with those .  This year, I'm trying (for the first time) to reuse some of my Amaryllis bulbs from last year .  I grew them in containers and had them bloom in the dark of Winter.  Then, I put their pots out in the sun all Summer-long.  And, finally brought them in to try to force them by putting them in the basement and trimming all the foliage off.  They've been in my basement (currently) for ten weeks.  I'll get them out in mid-November.   Besides, Amaryllis bulbs, another winter-time gardening project that people take on is growing Paperwhites from bulbs.  I found an eight-pack of Ziva bulbs and decided to try these at home.  Here, below, is the packaging from the bulbs from the orange Big Box store: Interesting that these are 'grown in Israel', no?   First, though...what are Paperw