Smart: Don’t hesitate to go for garden center leftovers. Annuals and perennials are likely root-bound by now, leaving you free to negotiate a lower price. Many plants can be given a makeover with this quick fix from Craig Cramer of Cornell University’s horticulture department: Turn the root ball upside down and use a knife to cut an X halfway up into the soil. Spread the four flaps and plant in well-prepared soil or potting mix. Then cut off the flowers and cut back the stems by about one-third to encourage the plant to take root faster. Water frequently
I use the air-quote around ‘quoted’ because I didn’t come up with this idea — even though I’ve done this with many pot-bound plants. A few weeks ago I got a call from a fact-checker from USA Today asking me if this really worked. I suggested some ‘weasel words’ like ‘Many plants will benefit from … ‘ because I know that this doesn’t work well with all plants you’ll find busting out of their pots this time of the year.
I wasn’t surprised to see that they didn’t take my advice on the weasel words. But I was surprised to see my name in the article.
Thursday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, I’ll be part of a ‘webinar’ (online web seminar) previewing a new website (The Bulb Project) for educators to help them use flower bulbs to teach science and other subjects. My friend and colleague Marcia Eames-Sheavly (who heads-up the Garden Based Learning program at Cornell) and Elly Cramer (technical wizard with the National Science Digital Library project at Cornell) are the others on the presenter team.
The webinar is basically an online PowerPoint presentation where we’ll voice over the slides. But it also involves interactive features during the presentation, including online chat during the presentation. It’s sponsored as part of an on-going serices by the National Science Teachers Association.
We won’t be detailing any cutting-edge bulb growing techniques. The focus is how to use bulbs in the classroom or informal learning settings, like after-school programs, 4-H groups, homeschooling, etc.
If you or someone you know works with children or youth, this should be right up your alley. Of if you just want to look at some pretty bulb pictures on a cold night, or experience a webinar, tune in. It’s free. And you can find more information at the NSTA webinar website.
The first editor I worked for warned me about asking hypothetical questions.
I think the world of Marie Iannotti over at About.com: Gardening, but the subject line from her opt-in email today could have used a second look before hitting send:
About Gardening: Is it Garden Worthy?
I’ve written my share of bad subject lines and headlines.  That said, Marie has started what could be a really garden-worthy thread with this question:
I ‘m curious to know what your experience has been with planting award winning or much touted plants in your own gardens – good or bad. Use the comments link below and clue us in to which plants would you recommend and which should we avoid?
To which I commented:
If I recall correctly, one of the criteria for AAS winners is ‘widely adapted’ — so they should perform well for most gardeners. But I’m more apt to look for plants that are peculiarly adapted to my situation as opposed to those that will do OK all over.
I’m pretty sure Pam over at Digging thinks that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. She beat me to the punch with her Year in the Garden post. But honest, I was thinking about doing the same here.
I committed to really give blogging some effort last winter. (I started the blog in August 2005. But it took awhile for me to get into the habit.) So there wasn’t much in the way of gardening to post about last January. ‘Rosie’ (right) took up residence in my office (where I wrote a popular article about the warm winter, hitting 59 F on Jan. 6), Cal Lane’s artsy shovels caught my eye, I ordered my veggies seeds, and blogged about music. I may have lost my lunchbox, but I’m still here.
I was ‘quoted’ in the article How to save on money on nearly everything in USA Weekend last weekend.
![rosie]](http://www.remarc.com/craig/images/rosie.JPG)
I’m pretty sure 
