60 deg and sunny, Fri snow and back in the high 20s

And I have always thought Minnesota was so cold.

Lollypop is the most prolific lily I've ever grown. Started with 3 ended up with
in a couple of years

I started with 3 of "Lolypop," years later I have 4 or 5, I think it gets overtaken by the babtisia.

gemini_sage said:UrbanWild, in what part of Kentucky do you live? Nice selection of plants there!

Old Louisville

I also had it and ended up with tons. Dug it up, shared it then lost mine. Figures. lol Reordered but potted up and for some reason they rotted. Too much rain maybe. Should have put them in the ground but they came too early. I have another dark red that is doing the same thing. This time I just dug around the front edge and got a bunch for a friend then just back filled with dirt. I may dig it all this year after it blooms and put it is several different spots to multiply again.

Maybe a little too symmetrical.

Twins????

First bloom of the year? A NOID daffodil...yesterday. Today 7s was the iris and crocuses below.

That said, ever since I saw a squirrel carrying away an anemone I planted, I have been bribing them with peanuts and sunflower seed bird feeders in the backyard. Two days ago I saw the first murdered crocus...no bulb left...just the shoot. Today I saw carnage on a side of house bed...half dozen or so shoots & buds. I have been stockpiling used coffee grinds and noticed the beds I had already treated were untouched. So, I sprang into action and used all the grounds in the beds...using a fry basket to help evenly coat. I treated the bed with the carnage first. After about 45 minutes of treating other beds with coffee, I saw the squirrel (only one of my squirrels does this...and he also eats my ice plants) run to the side of the house. I followed him but kept my distance to watch his behavior. He went right to the spot. He kept walking back and forth seemingly confused. After a couple of minutes, he walked away empty-handed. Coffee grounds seem to be a short term deterrent. I don't think it is a long-term answer though. We'll see...

Can't wait to get my bulbs and start planting

@Cem9165 Annette didn't you do that last yr? Come back from a trip and everything was in full swing? I remembered loving how you covered your edging with pine straw, people would have never known it was there. Pink hyacinth this yr!
@Oberon46 Mary Stella did you get your answer on Faraway Flowers? I'm on a Kindle and I'm slow on the uptake on linking, but look in our Green Pages, her website link is there. It's on Facebook. She will be having the last of her lily sales, VERY SOON.
Ginny, Dave, I think Ginny distracted me with her whiplash buying and in a conversation with her at Ramona's I somehow ordered some Pink Planet. And so I didn't know I was getting it and then crop failure, I STILL didn't get it. $12 is burning my hand.
Hi to everyone I haven't seen in awhile. I have, daffs, crocus, blooming and an amaryllis in the ground that is shooting up the scape before the leaves. Does that happen much?

Okay I have to ask this to anyone but I'm wondering if Neal, William, or Jack has theories about this.
I planted 3 erum... eruru.. shoot! FOXTAIL LILIES fall of '15 and 3 allium schubertii. I had foliage come up during the winter, it was mild weather.
Slowly though they died back without flowering and I thought that was that.
Perusing new sprouts in the flower beds this week and I see 2 foxtail and 2 schubertii plants foliage! I don't know what to think, I don't think I've had that happen before. I'm thrilled though. I'm going to look harder for the 3rd plants.

Yes, amaryllis will send up scapes before the leaves a lot of the time, at least in my containers! 🙂

Foxtails and schubertii usually have bloomed only a couple of seasons consecutively for me but they always bloomed when they did show.
If the shoots are looking healthy, I'd say they might bloom this season even if they didn't last year. Some blooms need to get acclimated to new homes and might not bloom their initial season in a new spot.; I'm thinking like Magic lilies.

Kabby I've had good and bad luck with the schubertii allium. But I agree if the foliage comes us mine always bloom

@kabby I went to her site and there is a menu item 'Shop' but it leads no where. Guess I am not meant too order lilies from them

@Oberon46 Mary Stella tree mail me your name that you use on Facebook. I will add you at the site. I might have to friend you, I'm not sure.
You shouldn't be getting anything that says shop. Might be her old website.

Mary Stella - once Kabby adds you to the list Ramona has to "accept" you on the sales site. She still has several bulbs left but a lot have been sold out. I just got my last bill This will be paid for by the "happy hubby" plan so he doesn't have a clue the total!

Kabby, for me some of the foxtail lilies flowered in the first year, others did not. If the foliage was otherwise healthy, there never was anything wrong. If we however are talking about earlier than expected foliage dieback, my guess would be that the plants - as jmorth suggested - needed to get acclimated or perhaps the roots were simply too small to bloom. Other option would be that the center died, but some parts survived and started to sprout this year. Unfortunately I lost all of my foxtail lilies to rot because of the frequent rains last winter, but I did notice that one of the rotted crowns produced new shoots from the side roots before dying (these also subsequently rotted, but that is another story).

As for A. schubertii I wonder how large your bulbs were as that could effect things as well. Slow dieback of the foliage however sounds normal. If it was rapid, then it would most likely have been rot and they would have been unlikely to make a return this year. Also bloom could be affected by incorrect storage before planting or lack of enough cold to induce bloom. Not sure about the exact demands of this Allium, but considering your location, perhaps lack of cold could be a possibility, especially as you say it was a mild winter? In any case i believe this normally isn't a long lived bulb.

I had Schubertii over 10 years that still came back at my old house.