@HemNorth - please do share your experience at Findhorn. Pretty please?

Yes, sounds so interesting.

HemNorth said:@joannakat

I'd love to share - it was an incredible experience, and thanks for asking. Perhaps in the winter. Maybe I'll start a blog and include it in there?

Pansies are amazingly resilient. Another flower that can start blooming in the late fall and go dormant under snow and then pop out smiling in the early spring is the Polyanthus Primrose, the kind you get at Safeway in the winter - early spring.

Another that lies dormant under snow is the Hellebore niger. Mine is just starting to bloom, and will be there when the snow is gone. Like magic!

I just looked these two plants up--they're gorgeous (I was recently at a primrose show). Alas, I only have what's considered full sun aside from one very small patch of dappled sun where my impatiens reside.

I looked around for pansies this week, and no one had them. I'm disappointed. Not Walmart, not Home Depot, not Lowe's...

Yardenman said:I looked around for pansies this week, and no one had them. I'm disappointed. Not Walmart, not Home Depot, not Lowe's...

Despair not! Come spring, they'll be everywhere!

But I want SOMETHING blooming around here through the Winter!

I wanted to ask this same question "Am I the only CRAZY one?"

I have been digging up my Gladiolus and am picking up every last little bulb. I can't help myself. What in the world am I going to do with all these Glad bulbs??? This spring I spread all the bulbs out in 3 raised beds that are 4' X 8'. One for the big bulbs, one for the medium, and one for the very small ones. Then I planted the largest ones in a 4' X 4' bed. I just finished digging up the bulbs from the last large bed. I still have the small bed to dig up. I was disappointed with their performance. I am thinking it could have been due to all the rain we got this year. Does anyone else dig up the Gladiolus and same all those tiny bulblets?

Yep you are all crazy! I am the only normal person I know! LOL Says he who has more houseplants than he knows what to do with!

LOVE IT! You are crazy toooooooo!

gardenglassgems said:I wanted to ask this same question "Am I the only CRAZY one?"

I have been digging up my Gladiolus and am picking up every last little bulb. I can't help myself. What in the world am I going to do with all these Glad bulbs??? This spring I spread all the bulbs out in 3 raised beds that are 4' X 8'. One for the big bulbs, one for the medium, and one for the very small ones. Then I planted the largest ones in a 4' X 4' bed. I just finished digging up the bulbs from the last large bed. I still have the small bed to dig up. I was disappointed with their performance. I am thinking it could have been due to all the rain we got this year. Does anyone else dig up the Gladiolus and same all those tiny bulblets?

Ohhhhh, moannnnn, my gladdys didn't do well this year. I'm pretty sure I overcrowded them and planted them too late. The ones I planted early and gave space to did well, and when I dug them up, they had lots of tiny bulblets. But alas, being new to all this, I was afraid they were some sort of disease and so threw them all out (apologizing to them all the way). The ones that didn't bloom? Well, I apologized to them for not handling them well, and thanked them for trying. Then I apologized to them for throwing THEM out! It was, after all, my first(ish) attempt at a flower garden. This time, I've planned everything out nicely (I think ) and hopefully, I'll have better results.

Well, I've never grown Glads, but I would always give any perennial plant a couple years to produce. Maybe 3. Sometimes the slow ones are longest-lived.

joannakat said:

Ohhhhh, moannnnn, my gladdys didn't do well this year. I'm pretty sure I overcrowded them and planted them too late. The ones I planted early and gave space to did well, and when I dug them up, they had lots of tiny bulblets. But alas, being new to all this, I was afraid they were some sort of disease and so threw them all out (apologizing to them all the way). The ones that didn't bloom? Well, I apologized to them for not handling them well, and thanked them for trying. Then I apologized to them for throwing THEM out! It was, after all, my first(ish) attempt at a flower garden. This time, I've planned everything out nicely (I think ) and hopefully, I'll have better results.

• Gladiola (Gladiolus)
• Uploaded by joannakat

• Gladiola (Gladiolus)
• Uploaded by joannakat

• Gladiola (Gladiolus)
• Uploaded by joannakat

• Gladiola (Gladiolus)
• Uploaded by joannakat

Very nice flowers, Joanna. My Glads did not do well this year either. I think it was too much moisture, and I too think I had them planted too close or not deep enough. I am going to plant them in a different place next year. I plan to put quite a few bulbs in pots also and see how they do. I will only pick the best looking (healthiest) bulbs. I am going to plant other flowers in the raised beds where this years Glads were so I can see if any of the bulblets that I missed will come up. I doubt it cause our winters are so cold but I had a couple Glads come up where I didn't plant them so we'll see.

@yardenman I didn't know that about some perennial plants! I often wondered why some of my bushes grow soooo slow! The soil is at the levels the plant needs.... made me think for a moment I was doing some wrong. lol
Thanks for that reassurance! ( I also live in a bipolar area of Michigan, where we get high 70's and sunny one day, then deep frost the next morning.)

I'm having fun reading this. And I thought I was the only one.

Here's a list of my disorders:

Let's see...I name my plants and call them by name when I'm outside. Quietly of course now ever since my one neighbor caught me and bust a gut laughing.

I say, "Mommy luuuuvs you" and "You're a good planty-plant." I say the exact same thing to the dog--except I say 'dog-dog' instead of planty-plant.

I tell them to play nice and scold them when they give me 'cacti kisses'. Hey...when it comes to cacti love hurts!

Whenever I buy a new plant, on the ride home I tell it, it will have a wonderful new home so much nicer than where it came from with all kinds of new friends to play with. When I get home I'll walk around the yard with it and 'ask' where it wants to 'live'. If I get a good 'vibe' I'll put it in that spot (sun conditions appropriate of course).

I dance around and clap when one grows, blooms or otherwise surprises me.

I instruct----yes instruct, my husband to make 'friends' with the plants. I tell him if he does they'll be nice to him. He thinks they all have a conspiracy against him.

No. You have to understand this. My husband is amazing in that he is the only human I know that can literally stand 3 feet away from a cacti, agave or aloe and still mange to get stuck or pinched by them. It is really perverse in a way as he thinks I literally put them up to it!

I apologize to them, when I accidentally step on or trip over them (I have some tiny ones), or when I inadvertently break a leaf (aloes and agaves). I am depressed for a day or two when I kill one.

And if that isn't bad enough.........I am an artist. And you guessed it. I paint plants (not exclusively but one of my favorite subjects as I live in the desert S.W.). My avatar is a painting I did of one of my children from years ago.

Out of pure boredom I started reading this and had to laugh. At first I thought YES YOU ALL ARE! but then started to think of what I do when out in my veggie garden, I'll check the sprouts and get cheesed when they get bigger, I'll lightly touch them and tell them how pretty, strong or appreciated they are then see a Russian thistle or puncture vine among them and lull them with an " oh, look at you" then pull! Does this make me evil?

Aside from the documented benefits of talking to your plants, I think that it's okay on two conditions: 1) no-one else should be around lest they realize you prefer the company of plants to them, because then you have to cook for yourself.
And more importantly; 6) unless you are one helluva plant breeder, they shouldn't talk back!!!

I forgot to watch this thread and I just read what I missed. Still laughing I must say I get all giddy and laugh and clap my hands when my first blooms of spring open up. Then again when my favorites start to bloom.

I don't apologize in a particular way like I'd do to any human. It's more like a: "Sorry pal, but you're coming out NOW!"
It's more talking to myself cuz I always garden alone lol

Okay @josebaca, so then...., you are...., (dum dum DUM!!!!!) ONE OF US!

I reading the last few comments, as I had not been watching this thread for a while. And yes, I'm in the crazy club too. I can't stand to see plant stems broken off or one dying. If I find one dead, I apologize to it for mommy's neglect and put it in the ground for compost (proper burial). If it's a cactus, it goes in the trash, of course.

DH teases me when he sees stems I've set aside and asks, "Is this for the trash?" He knows I'll panic, quickly snatch it up and tell him to leave my plants alone. He knows good and well I'm going to try to root it whether I need it or not, so he gets quite a kick out of doing that kind of thing.

I'll often rescue plants from the death racks at the garden centers. I'll tell them Mommy's going to revive them and to hang on as life will get better.