fingers in dirt

couldn't stand not playing in the dirt so i planted my tulips today. Have three really large pots full, hope to have them blooming in march

Mine should be by then too. ;-)

I potted up scales from American Spirit, Euridice , Ariadne , Tinkerbell,cernum, Orange Marmalade, Pink Taurade, Redman, Black Prince, and a couple of tango hybrids. Have lots more in the frdge, not doing anything very much.

Started some leek seeds too. Know it is much too early but just HAD TO.
Inanda

Ginny, I'm so happy to know you have Black Prince. That' all I've done so far too, pot up a few scales and bulblets, but I can't wait much longer to play with seeds. Have some Snow Pansy coming from Vesey's.

Black Prince is one scale with 3 bulblets/ Let me tell you I'll be watching them VERY CAREFULLY.
Inanda

You two are speaking a foreign language - qu'est que c'est scale? bulblet?

Scales are the layers of the lily bulb. Bulblets are the baby bulbs that form on the stems of some liliies. Lilies can be propagated by taking scales off the bulb and encouraging them to form tiny babies at the bottom where they were attached to the main bulb. It is so much fun . Lily nuts love to share this way.

Some lilies are really expensive so here in Manitoba one person will buy a whatever and share scales with others. You just have to have patience.

Inanda

There you go, I have learned something new too. :-)

My fingers can't stay out of dirt either, but I have lots of houseplants to make them grimy enough - if only I had the time to do all the transplanting that I need to do ... lol.

Boy, ginny and Brenda, I really thought you were talking a foreign language...Euridice, Ariadne, scales...glad to hear they are lilies! Am excited about starting them from scales. I just ordered a couple of bulbs of Stella d'Oro and they are SO expensive.

By the way, I'm also starting seeds--my basil and geraniums are up, and Dusty Miller just showing--will start the onions and leeks as soon as they arrive; never too early to start leeks. When they hit 4" or so you just scissor them back.

I repotted and cut back some straggly, weak-looking geraniums that hadn't been getting enough light, and overly-optimistically took cutting from them. I don't have a non-freezing place that is cold enough to store things properly, so our house is so full of plants you can hardly see out the windows.

I've settled on zone 2 because plants rated at 3 or 4 often don't survive and because we can get -45, but it really is an arbitrary choice.

Rosemary, have you checked here for confirmation of your zone? You just might be right. http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html. Williams Lake is 3b/4a, but there are many different zones surrounding it, right down to zone 1a (that'd likely be a mountain top...brrrrr...lol). Precipice Valley's not listed unfortunately, but since you're near Williams Lake, you'd be able to find your location on their map, since you know which way to go from WL.

Christine

Christine--that link didn't work; the notice said it was possibly outdated. But it looks pretty useful, so if anyone has an updated one?

Actually, we're about 350 km west of Williams Lake and then south 40 km and another 1,000' down from the Chilcotin Plateau, in a bit of a microclimate compared to "up top" where it is consistently 5-10 degrees Celsius colder. The Plateau is around 4,000'. (I've decided I'm too old to start relating height to metres--I do well to drive and shiver in metric). Anyhow, after 18 years of weather observations I've realized that our weather here is unique! Either something makes it or it doesn't...and that can vary from year to year. But that's the challenge of gardening, right? (Remind me of that when another favourite plant bites the dust.)

http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html - Rosemary, this is strange. When I tried it from the post I sent you above, it didn't work. I accessed it through my favourites and it worked fine. When I previewed this post it worked fine. Maybe the last time I posted it got corrupted for some reason. Hope it works this time!
Chrsitine.

Christine, it worked, and what a great site! Thanks so much. I guessed right, though--I'm 2a, most of the time. Except when I'm not.

At 34, I think in metric for driving and buying milk, a combination of metric and imperial for the weather, and imperial for almost everything else. I have no idea how many cm tall I am. 5'5" just seems to make more sense. Guess our school's metric efforts in the 70's didn't completely take!

Rosemary, I think you may be the cold-zone champ of the Canadian forum! - unless I'm missing someone - ?

According to Broots, she is zone 2 also.

That is a good site, I just love playing with that map! Glad it worked this time! These things can be touchy I guess....just like us...sigh...lol.

Going by the color coding on the 2000 Plant Hardiness Zone Map I'm in a 3a zone.

This message was edited Jan 12, 2005 9:50 PM

What I like about the updated one that Christine gave us, is that you can zero in right to your own city.

i know when i zoomed in on the edmonton spot there were a couple of little rectangles that are a half zone higher so i've decided i live in one of them

I'll keep my 3b rating.......living 1/2 way down the hill has a few advantages.

When I first joined DG I used that site to find my zone. I figured it was 7b which is what I listed myself as but then I noticed that Jeanne lists herself as being in zone 8b so I changed mine because that sounded nicer. I just noticed on returning to the website that they don't even have 8b on the chart for Canada. Hmmm.

2b or not 2b, that is Pam's question.... :-)

My computer was on the fritz last night, and the map search function doesn't like our firewall here at work, so not sure what the official word is on our place. I'm sure there are a couple of zones' worth of variation within even most individual yards.

Shannon, I looked and the borderline for zones 4b/5a runs right through the city of Gatineau/Hull. I guess you can take your pick! I think Pam has the right idea!