Twiggybet1's Blog

mystery bulbs
Nov 2, 2007 | 8:47 PM PST
Tags: bulbs , rain garden , Rose of Sharon

While digging out the grassless area I decided to make my rain garden, I dug up a couple of clusters of small bulbs that I know I did not plant.  They may have been a gift from the squirrels.  On a whim, I picked them out of the dirt and threw them into a pot thinking that maybe if I felt like experimenting, I would plant them in a pot and set them in the bay window and see what comes up.  Of course they would have to wait until I finished up my current project before I did anything with them.  The empty pot I tossed them in was just sitting on the patio and got rained in, and the bulbs were sitting in water and sprouted.  So now I have them potted proper.  I wonder if they are the bulbs I had planted in the spring in a pot that the squirrels raided.  Wouldn't that be something?

 I pruned the Rose of Sharon.  It is still very small, as I first planted it last fall, but the few branches it had decided to grow absurdly long.  So I pruned it back to try to shape it, and saved the trimmings.  I put root hormone on them and have them in a pot on my kitchen table.  My sister just planted a Rose of Sharon this year that she got from her father-in-law when he was moving things around in his yard.  I hope it has different colored blooms than mine, so I can talk her into trading clippings.  She's a pretty casual gardener, though.  She doesn't especially have the interest to spend too much time  gardening, so I'll probably have to help myself to a couple clipping when I visit her.  I'll have to see it in bloom first, though.

I posted some pictures in my photo albums of the rain garden, in process and filled in.  Surveying my work, it seems that I planted mostly bulbs, and the other plants are really small.  I am anxious to see what it looks like in the spring.  The only annoying thing right now is the leaves keep falling and blowing, and I'm afraid to rake it too much because I don't want to disturb my new plants and bulbs.

I think last night's frost finally killed the zucchini.  I didn't have time to pull it today, so I'm planning on getting them taken care of tomorrow.  It's supposed to be clear and dry, about 60 degrees, and that's pretty darn nice for November around here!