Thanks watergal, I'm glad I have more lee-way on the lilies. The trick with the lotus, I guess, is to figure out that little window of opportunity in the spring where you're not having to divide it when its so cold out, or when it has started growing already. I've heard as soon as it starts growing, you can really kill it by manipulating it much. I'm realizing that the stuff I have that's underground is slower to sprout than the stuff that's in my little pond, in the sun. So I'm thinking I could have waited a little longer with the ones underground. Oops. Now I have all these tubers floating in an above-ground tub and there's freezing night temps on the way. Oh well. I'm sure it will all turn out in the end........or not. :) Thanks for your help watergal.

It's too early to plant! wait for mid-May or Memorial Day. Have you done any pinching to produce stockier plants? if you haven't do it now. You can be "brutal" with pinching, too... the plant won't really care. Pinching forces the plant to put out more roots and develope multiple stems, this is good because the plant doesn't have a chance to get tall and "weedy". If you are new to plants this is a scarey thing to do! I almost fainted the first time... I pinched my Cascade petunias to just about soil level... thought they'd die... but NO! they produced 3 stems and were absolutely gorgeous, full, and lush all season long. If they really begin to over grow their places you can always "pot them on"... but try pinching first... all the greenhouses are doing the very same thing. And I always take the plants out of the containers... they never break down efficiently and the plant invariably remains potbound and fails to grow vigorously throughout the season.

Susan, It is traditionally too early for beans and in many parts of OK likely the soil temps are too cool, but our temperatures are insanely high and my soil in my raised beds is heating up fast, so I went ahead and planted them. I have a billion bean seeds, so if they don't germinate, it is not a major loss. Check your soil temps where you're going to plant them and see if it is warm enough. Every year since we moved here, Fred has planted his beans in March a couple of weeks ahead of me and then given me a hard time "What, you don't have your beans in the ground yet?", etc. and this year I am ready for him. When he stops by to tell me his beans are planted, I will tell him that mine are too. He has better sandy soil on the old home place than my clay so he can get away planting earlier there than I can here, but this year I may get away with an early planting too. I don't know exactly what soil temps and air temps are doing at anyone else's homes in other parts of the state, but our current nighttime lows already are about the same as our daytime highs normally are at this time of year, and our current daytime highs are almost 20 degrees higher than our usual March highs. I just cannot sit and wait for the right calendar date to roll around when the temps are like this. Even if a subsequent cold spell hits, I probably will be able to cover up and protect everything. We had some years like this in the early 2000s that warmed up early and they were great spring garden years. I always emphasize that I put my plants into the ground when the air temps and ground temps are in the right range, and when the 10-day forecast looks good rather than planting blindly by the calendar, and that's precisely why I am planting so many warm-season crops right now...because the conditions are such that the seeds will germinate and the plants will grow. Often we struggle with the temps getting too high too early in the summer and the high temps having an adverse affect on garden productivity, so it only makes sense that if we get an early warm-up we take advantage of it in an attempt to beat the heat. Heather, Harden off those chives babies and put them in the ground. They are remarkably cold-tolerant. Mine generally emerge from the soil in January (and sometimes stay green all winter) and are flowering by April. I have dug and divided them, and gotten called away from the garden by fires and left a bunch lying on the ground in freezing weather, and they didn't even freeze although their roots were exposed. They then began rooting down into the ground where they were lying and I had to dig them out of that pathway and plant them after I got back to the garden again a couple of weeks later. Chives are very tough. Carol, I always put my warm season crops in the ground earlier than y'all, and you can't time your plantings by mine. I'm just too far south. It does seem peculiar to me to be putting warm-season crops in the ground when I just barely finished getting the cool-season ones planted, but in a year like this, it is worth the risk. Our temps are so high. I don't like transplanting tomatoes when the high is going to be 80 degrees, but they have been out in this weather all along, so should be able to take it. Nannybird, Every now and then we get to plant early and don't have to regret it. I think this likely is one of those rare years. Dawn

Granted these are not live oaks, but I think a pic of my Bur Oaks says it all. The two trees were purchased from the same nursery on the same day. Actually purchased three but to lazy to walk to the other end of my lot. The larger of the two which is working it's way to 20' is located in the irrigation zone from my septic aerobic septic tank. Every night365 days a year, it receives 'enriched water' from the septic tank via impact sprinklers. The second tree is located outside of this area, received water the first three years by way of gator bags 2X a week. After three years, it has been on its own to fend for itself. The third which is only slightly larger, which I attribute to the deeper soil it is planted in, was treated identically. There is nothing weak about that first tree. And these pics support what was said above. Bur Oaks and Oaks in general have a notorious reputation of being painfully slow growers but give them a primo location and conditions and they will grow like a weed. It's not been that long since planting-6 years. I measure growth on the first tree in feet every year, not inches. The soil around that 1st oak is constantly wet so much so that my Z mower slips and slides around when I at 6pm. The only time it has been been close to being dry was during the 18 day stretch of 100+ degree days we had. I would say if the ground will take the water, there is good drainage and it's not puddling up on the surface, give your tree as much water as you can afford.