End of February, and we've already had over 4 feet of snow in Pittsburgh. And it's snowing again. But if you've got daylilies, get out into your garden as soon as the snow melts and look for this dangerous condition. When the ground is still frozen and drainage is bad, water can pond around plants. This might rot the crown if the water sits in contact too long. Once the ground thaws, the drainage improves and you won't know why all those plants just didn't come up in the spring.
I found this bumper sticker at
http://www.zazzle.com/ and got one for both cars. I think it was designed by Tee Money of Ric-A-Tee Daylilies. The INNOVATION is that Zazzle lets you customize the design, changing the photo and (as I did) ADD TEXT. Less than $5 each, $3 shipping; get a bunch for your own club!
Pittsburgh Iris and Daylily Society has a couple of joint meetings each year with the Daffodil and Hosta Society of Western Pennsylvania. Speaker this winter (at left) was Mike Shadrack, who just released a NEW book- "The Book of Little Hostas" with his wife and Diana Grenfell. It covers extensively the special conditions the mini hosta requires, and I'll bet it saves the (less than $20 at Amazon) cost when it keeps you from killing just ONE mini hosta.
The cheap deer fence is holding so far- only one break-in. But if I do it again, I'll twist tie the deer netting to the clothesline along the top; the clothes pins don't hold in high wind. The bottom 3 feet is rabbit fence to keep the smaller critters out, but it also reinforces the net at the bottom from deer nosing under.
The snow man is wearing his snow cap a lot this winter. My big idea for next winter is to fill 2 big white trash bags with styrofoam peanuts after threading them down over the pole.
Labels: winter daylily ponding
# posted by hemehostaholic @ 8:01 AM
