TOW: Have you ever...?

Cathy Craig batlette@cox.net
Sun, 24 Aug 2003 22:09:17 PDT
Dear all,

In Mary Sue's absence (she is on vacation) your board is going to take turns
with the Topic of the Week. These topics were suggested by none other than
Robert Parker, one of our illustrious members, and a loyal dinner guest at
the bulb dinners I have here at our home twice yearly.

This weeks topic is: Have you ever planted a bulb and had it disappear from
sight and thought you had lost it only to rediscover it 4-6 years later?

My own contribution to this topic (and the reason I chose it from Robert's
suggested list) is that I have three Lycoris bulbs that originally came from
Jim Waddick (who, for those of you new to PBS, introduced the original idea
of the Bulb Exchange some years ago). I planted them at the top of a slope
that descends from the back edge of our back yard. I was very new to bulbs
at that point and although I was trying very hard to follow all directions
exactly, I somehow became confused and planted these bulbs 12 inches deep!

Each year as I scanned the slope, they were nowhere in evidence. After two
or three years I gave up and emailed Jim W. about the planting particulars.
He said they should only be planted about 3 inches deep. It's suicide to go
out on that slope except under the most serious emergencies since the whole
thing is a 1:1 slope and both John and myself have rolled from the top to
the bottom several times while weeding over the years...and we're neither of
us is getting any younger either.

So I resigned myself to no lycoris bulbs.

But THEN, last year as I was surveying the slope from the edge of the back
yard I saw one lone flower stalk amid mostly plain dirt. Yes! One of the
long-lost lycoris bulbs! Eventually all three appeared that year and
bloomed. I am hoping that they will appear again this year.

The moral is: don't give up!

Cathy Craig EA
President PBS


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