Sandy. You are a nut. Took me about 10 seconds to figure out what you posted. Not too sharp here. Coffee! Need more coffee

In retrospect it probably should have been "wob wow" ... although I'm not entirely sure about that...

yep, might have had a little too much caffeine when I posted, Mary!

Love it!

pirl said:Belated Happy Birthday, Mary! Hope it was a good one.

Me too, sorry I missed it but hope you had a really great birthday.

A belated Happy Birthday! Mary!

Thanks Caroline & Rita. I also had my semi-annual "C" checkup yesterday. Came through with flying colors. As I am now past the two year mark, my doc says I should be in good shape for the forseeable future. 99% recur in first two years, if at all. So feeling pretty good. Would just as soon forget the whole thing but the news was good.

I was reading about perennial flax on an old thread. A pretty blue flower but it said it was more for arid areas, well, at least fairly dry ones with poor soil. Guess that wouldn't be a good choice for here which is neither dry nor poor soil. I guess Walker's Low would be my best bet for a mid height blue swath of color. Still working on the front new bed, though for now it is only planning for next year. Moose came through and walked through the smaller bed narrowly missing some new iris I planted and entirely missing the peonies. I really need to respray with planskyyd as it usually deters them. Maybe I kept it too long in the box and it lost its lovely aroma.

I also want to replace the arabis (rockcress?) and campanula with something else along the borders next year. Maybe just annuals that are tidy. I had some nice purple and white stuff and while it bloomed to freeze up it was a slow starter. Need something a little quicker to fill in til then. Ideas?

Hi everyone! Gosh, where have I been? I just stumbled by and realize we are a "zone" family. I don't feel so alone in the cold north any more!
Just finished planting my bulb order in the nick of time. Muscari pink, fritillaria meleagris, camassia leichtlinii, and wild species tulips. We've had rain for the last few days and I swear [literally] it looked pretty slushy on my windshield yesterday.

Love your selections. Believe me, you are not alone 'in the cold.' Many of us are right there with you, except I have snow and ice on the ground.

Snow coming here today!
Colder too!
And all the bulbs are not in yet!
Ground has not frozen yet so maybe can dig in the snow?

Sounds grim but as long as the ground is thawed I would think a hardy Canadian could do it. Not sure about this hardy Alaskan.

Hi Kathy... are you in St. Clair, as in, the thumb area?? hard for me to believe you are in zone 4b and I'm in 5a ....

Which is definitely not to say I don't consider you a "northern gardener"

Yes we are located in the thumb region of Michigan. 4b it is. Went down to 32 below, plus the winds shift from the north during winter and we are wide open farm land, exposed. No luck when I tried growing Japanese maple, burning bush, and flowering almond-even lost some of my 45 year old lavender. We have a year or two of zone 5 weather, then wamo, another cold year follows.

@katesflowers. Sounds just like us - each one you mentioned is a bust up here. I so wanted lavender but it just won't survive. And forget the Japanese maples. I have some amur maples that are awfully pretty though. I am in a microclimate here in Anchorage. A zone 4 something or other for sure. But I have no doubt that depending on snow cover and average temps from year to year we dip lower, or higher. Just enough to lure me into trying something like heuchera which I rot every year

Mary Stella
When I worked for SEMCO Energy, I learned a lot about Alaskan climate. Some areas are considered dry like a desert. You are also dealing with perma frost. I can't imagine. The year we hit 32 below zero, gas excavation crews were reporting our soil froze down 10 feet. Three feet is normal for us.

Oberon46 said:@katesflowers. Sounds just like us - each one you mentioned is a bust up here. I so wanted lavender but it just won't survive. And forget the Japanese maples. I have some amur maples that are awfully pretty though. I am in a microclimate here in Anchorage. A zone 4 something or other for sure. But I have no doubt that depending on snow cover and average temps from year to year we dip lower, or higher. Just enough to lure me into trying something like heuchera which I rot every year

Trying a new Lavender, Phenomenal, its looking good so far, have it on a hillside and full sun. I have had Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ for several years, some years better than others.

I have a lavender that has survived for 2 winters now, really surprised that it has grown so well, I even have a seedling that came up this spring, I hope it continues to thrive, I have lost many over the years.

I have tried 'Hidcote' to no avail. And the one with the Russian name like persificolia (not that isn't right).

I lived in Fairbanks for 37 years and permafrost there could destroy buildings - looked like a monster had started at the bottom and just ate them up. People built in the stupidest places know for bad permafrost. But land was cheap so they thought they were getting a deal. When the house foundations began crushing all they could do was walk away.

Anchorage doesn't have so much permafrost (if any) just frozen ground each year. I figure maybe mine goes down two feet. Know in the spring that every so often if I jump the gun, I will go down a foot or so and hit what feels like concrete. Frozen clay soil. And every so often I hit it and if I keep pounding, all of a sudden I break through to the thawed sandy substrate beneath. Kind of interesting.

It is technically still fall so I finally finished all of my must do garden work this past weekend.
Got ALL of the roses buried and covered, did not trim my bush roses as I was lazy. I will wait till spring.
Finally cut down the raspberries while it was drizzling. I feel kind of bad as some nice plump red ones fell onto the snow but if ground critters eat them, they can have them.
Put leaves over some perennials, that are getting too big and do not need them but she insisted so I did it.
I did not put Styrofoam covers over some plants along the house, as the years I did not they came back but if it rains next week I may do that but if I do not nothing lost.

I have done just about nothing in the way of winter protection except the cover on my rhododendron. I may regret it especially where new peonies are concerned and some newly moved perennials as we have had about zero snow and the temps have gotten down to the single digits a few times - mostly teens or twenties.

We are supposed to have snow this week. I surely hope so. The ground is drying out which is not good for the plants. Conversely we had warmish weather for quite a while which should have allowed the new plants and newly moved ones to establish new roots. I put bulb fertilizer and azomite on the many of them so hoping the warmth allowed some of it to seep down

We have had snow a few times now at night and early morning, then it mostly melts during the day, but we got a few inches last night that may stay as it is pretty cold today @ 26f with a high of only 31f.