The other co-mother of LACTNET has given me permission to post this,
although she refuses to allow me to brag about blooming tulips (she is
currently in the middle of a snowstorm) and she feels this is PERILOUSLY
CLOSE TO TULIP-TALK!

If you are not into gardening, skip this post.

I need help from other gardening nuts (i.e., those of you who have chronic
dirt under the nails from digging in the yard--one form of mental health
therapy to which I prescribe).

My yard (new house, new yard--formerly cow pasture) is currently called
(fondly) "Mudhill Ranch" for obvious reasons.

I have contracted with the local high school landscaping class to do the
basic landscaping, which includes ground cover on the very steep slope in
the front yard, and terracing the back yard where it is not flat (my house
is built into the side of a hill, so a lot of the yard has a slope).  They
are putting in the sod and some of the plantings that require help (the
trees I am putting in).  However, I am doing the rest.  And some of that
"rest" includes planting 16 rose hedge plants along two sides of the
cyclone fencing int he back yard that keeps my Siberian Husky from
wandering through the neighborhood.

The landscaping has not yet begun (we are 2-4 weeks ahead of that) but the
rose hedge plants arrived today!  Ack!  Now what do I do?  The instructions
indicate the roots have been treated with something to prvent "transplant
shock" and that I am to water them well RIGHT BEFORE planting but not
before.  I took the plants out of the bag they arrived in (very LARGE bag)
and many of the stems already have little buds for leaves, etc. on them.  I
do not want these things to croak before they are in the ground, but am at
a loss re: how to keep them.

I have them in a large garbage can without dirt or water at the moemnt, in
the garage where it is cool and not very bright (I closed the blinds in the
windows, thinking that might slow growth.

What else should I do, people?  PS Any whose help arrives in time to keep
these plants alive and growing after planting has an open invitation to
visit the "Auerbach Arms" to enjoy the outcome of my efforts (and those of
the landscaping class!)

Many thanks in advance.

PS Think of the plants as my "new babies." (Perhaps that will make this a
bit closer to lactation issues....



"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html

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