Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Blooms, almost November, or other garden pretties?, 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
As blustery as it was today--I have NO doubt we will have a light frost tonight...
I was out there in my sweat shirt for about 4 hours trying to do what needed doing.
That wind was nasty! And SOOOO cold!

I cleaned up a lot of beds--pulled up most of the annuals--Bye..Bye....
Left some of the prettiest be--but, if we have frost tonight--they will be gone anyway.
Cut back all my Phlox and the huge N.E. Aster.
Cut back and dug up all my caladiums.
Pulled up almost all my Coleus, my annuals and some N.G. Imps.
Two big trash-bags full...

And--in the category of growing larger and more bulbs--the winner is "AARON!
WOWSA!!! Geesh! You should see how many bulbs there are now! And big ones too.

The other two--"Buck Rogers" and "Carnival" did divide into more bulbs too.
"Buck Rogers" did the poorest--but it was also in a more wet soil by my shed.
Anything there does not do well--as it gets all the rain run-off from the Shed roof.
They are all now in my Shop drying out.

Also learned a lesson worth NEVER repeating!!! >/b>
NEVER plant anything that makes massive root-systems in a BIG pot all together.
My BIG pot on the stump had all those wild-growing/sprawling Persian Shields in it.
AND--one of the big Caladium bulbs that Holy was passing around.
Plus a bunch of trailers...no biggie on those.

I pulled out all the annuals around the rim--but could not even stick a trowel
into the soil. Tried to be as careful as i could so i would not damage the
Caladium bulb(s). Dug and tried to pull it out by hand. NO GO!
Got rid of some of the soil and then took the whole pot down and started banging it
on the lawn to loosen the root ball. It worked....pulled out the whole root ball--
.but everything was so intertwined, I could not separate the two root systems.
It was a huge amount of effort.

Finally--when I got the caladium clump out--it had become 4 good-sized bulbs!
Yay!!! More for next year! Now I have to think what to plant in that big pot
next year. Definitely just annuals--as they pull up easily.
Need something tall in the center, though.....WHAT????????
And--maybe just plant the caladiums by themselves in a big pot as many of you do.

A QUESTION:

Can Osteospermum Daisies be rooted from cuttings?????
I had ONE plant--and it seems to love the colder temps--as it has flourished
(No blooms, though) but has grown well. Cut it back and prepared cuttings to root.
has anyone rooted this plant?? Any luck???
It looks like it should work.... Similar to the Montauk Daisies.

OK! Another long post.....sorry!!! They all seem to go that way. Gita

Here is the big pot on the stump that gave me so much trouble.
This pic is from August....