ShadyGreenThumb said:I received a couple more garden surprises for Christmas. My mom gave me a suet bird feeder in the shape of a giant 14" frog! LOL I have never seen a frog feed a bird let alone a frog hanging in a tree. This will definitely add some whimsey to the garden! A dinner guest brought me some tulip bulbs rooting in a glass vase. I have it sitting in a sunny window hoping it blooms for me. Any hints for this first time tulip grower? There must be 20 or so bulbs in there! btw, DH loved his garden scooter. He used the box for indoor target practice with my new BB gun! ETA: My neighbor brought over a beautiful giant red cyclamen! I used it as a centerpiece on my dinner table

You should ask the people at the bulb forum! That's where I got inspired (by them) to plant (1946 - the total of just the tulips came to 1402!) this Fall (for the first time)! @Newyorkrita should be able to help you. She planted at least 12,000 bulbs this Fall.

Lin,

Gorgeous doggie! How old is he now? He's so big that he doesn't look like a puppy anymore.

Thanks, Marilyn! Will do! See you over there.

Marilyn: We just got him at Thanksgiving; he's almost 9 months old and weighs 75 pounds. The Vet says he's a big puppy who's definitely going to get bigger but we don't think he will weigh more than @ 95 pounds, although we could be wrong. My youngest sister has a 3 year old, 90 pound Golden who's frame is smaller than Bo so we think our Bo may end up being a little heavier than that. This is the first dog we've had in the household in 28 years and it's really a lot of fun! It didn't take him long to adjust to his new home and it didn't take us long at all to get adjusted to having a canine in the family again! It seems like he's always been here. He's a great dog and really smart. He already knew the commands of sit and down and we've taught him to stay and shake hands. I just need to work with him on-leash because he's so strong and wants to pull when I walk him so we're going to work on that now that I'm over the bout of bronchitis.

I don't know anything about forcing bulbs indoors, sorry.

Rita, Do you know if the tulips have been cooled (chilled) preconditioned for forcing?
If so then about 4 to 6 weeks from sprouting to bloom. If not stratified, then you may end up with foliage only & no blooms

I don't know anything about the subject of forcing bulbs. I don't know how to grow them indoors. I just answered because I was called to this thread but I can't be of any help on the subject.

Sorry about that Rita! I thought you knew about it.

I do know who does a lot of bulb forcing and that is @jmorth

He has pics and talks about forcing. He stated he did a lot of pots of forcing this Fall and has done it before. I don't know why I didn't think of him before.

Hopefully, he'll help you out.

I wonder if since these were from a store that they have been forced into cold temps already?? Tulips are a spring flower, right? If I refrigerate them now for 12 weeks as usual, then I wouldn't get blooms until April when our temps will be pushing 80º. That wouldn't be good for the flowers at all. They already have a bunch of leaves if that makes any difference?

Lin, Bo is beautiful! Our last dog was a golden, and he was the best dog ever. I was so heartbroken when he died that I've never found it in me to get another dog.

Goldens are strong! Ours topped out at 105 lbs when he was older. And big dogs can be a handful! I've had a few in my lifetime.

Karen

Karen, yeah, big dogs can sure be a handful especially if they don't have any training. That's one thing both my husband and I agree on totally ... our dog must have some obedience training. We've had large dogs in the past; one was a lab mix and he topped out at @ 110 pounds and we had a male Alaskan Malamute that was probably @ 95 pounds. When I was growing up we always had large dogs in the family, labs and shepherds. My youngest sister has raised a few Golden's and an English Springer Spaniel but currently has just the one Golden. My oldest sister and her family have always had large dogs too; they currently have an almost 13 year old male yellow lab who weighs @ 105 and two BIG English Mastiffs, one weighs @ 200 pounds and I think she said the other is about 180. They had a big male mastiff a few years ago who topped out at @ 245 pounds. Mastiff's are gentle giants ... but talk about slobber! They have to keep doggie slobber towels all over the house so that when the dogs shake their heads, the slobber doesn't get flung onto furniture and walls!

I'd never have a dog THAT big.

Karen

My sister said we should get a Mastiff but I didn't want one quite that large, LOL and I didn't want the slobber that goes along with the breed either. They really are gentle giants but I think any dog, especially the larger and giant breeds NEED obedience training. They play so hard and jump around, it would be quite easy for them to hurt someone. When my mom was still living, she was quite frail and we always worried when she went to my sisters house because those huge dogs are so wild (no training whatsoever.) Luckily they'd always take the dogs outside until we could get mom in and get her seated.

Our new golden is very strong at 75 pounds and he gets really playful at times, running and jumping (he can jump pretty high too), he wants to jump up and grab our arms with his mouth. Canine's play rough with their litter mates so we know it's natural for him ... but we need to train him to realize that we are the alpha in charge and he can't play rough with us like that. I was out in the yard with Bo a little while ago and he was very frisky (he loves the cooler temp's) and he was running laps around the yard and came running at me really fast but luckily I saw him coming and yelled no, and he stopped, thank goodness. We are trying to be consistent and reinforcing with the commands and he's doing really well so far.

Joannabanana is correct if the bulbs previously had cold treatment for the necessary mount of time. They need a cold treatment of 15 to 16 weeks. I'd have reservations that they received that much before sent.

During an after-Christmas browse at a book store in Austin, Texas with daughter and family, bought the book "Lawn Gone!" by Pam Penick. Wish I had the courage to remove our lawn but it is probably NOT going to happen. I can look at the pictures and dream!

@backacre
Don't give up your dream. I was inspired by a young man on the cover of Organic Gardening - gosh, maybe about 30 years ago - I just kept dreaming about what I would do one day. And now I have no lawn to speak of. I do keep a token patch about 5 feet x 5 feet near the mailbox but if it doesn't get watered or fertilized it really doesn't grow all that high. I can cut it with a pair of scissors if need be!

I replaced the lawn in our backyard and planted dwarf Monkey Grass. It never needs mowing and stays green all year. It it tough enough to run wheelbarrows over and over and over it. The area is small though. And I don't think it would be an option for our large front lawn. The only other option that I have in mind is to put in a circular driveway.

We are so far from the original idea of 'under the Christmas tree' but I just can't resist saying ...

a circular driveway? Oh, no. How will you know if your are coming or going?