WELL.. here is your first gardening lesson.. patience .. lol ... i have planted 6 inch conifers.. so i could enjoy them in 10 years or so .. whats your hurry??? you plant some annuals for immediate gratification.. but they die at the end of the year. then at the same time you start collecting perrenials that will live much longer.. peony in particular.. can live.. 100 years .. and you cant wait a couple years .. think of it this way.. peony has HUGE flowers .. it isnt going to produce such.. until it has a root mass sufficient to feed such.. so that is summed up by.. grow the roots and the flower will follow ... and in this case.. it could take 3 to 5 years ... and when they talk about eyes.. they are talking about a root mass ... so a plant that has 3 eyes.. should have more roots than a one eye plant.. so that should cut your time line down a bit ... but with planting stresses .. i would not be surprised that it might take a few years to really get going ... all that said.. you HAVE TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE ... and there are tricks to how to plant such.. those eyes.. should be at soil level.. not below ... i just told you to go to hallsons in another post.. he probably has some nice filed grown ones.. but you will have to ask him.. if you make that trip.. make an appointment in advance ... and tell him i told you to come ... ken ps: and then after you have a nice perennial collection.. you start collecting shrubs.. and conifers and pretty trees ... lol ... its all about collecting.. and its a life time game ... there really isnt .. or there shouldnt be.. immediate gratification ...

Okay, all you diggers and dividers: I was in a digging lull today so took a couple more photos of eyed tubers and how to divide them. Some from last year: this plant had blown down and the stalk broke off below ground level so the pink shredded tissue is where the stem was and began to rot. The collar material surrounding it is where the eyes will form, or on the underside of the clump. Marked with eyes Marked with where I'd cut. Don't forget to turn the clump upside down to check for eyes associated with tubers on the underside. One or two cuts from left and right to get these two tubers off the clump. A careful slice between eyes and you'll get two tubers off this "V" shaped offspring. Eyes marked in red, where I'd make cutting lines in green, brown spot fungus marked in blue. I'll have to use chemistry to kill that in my soil next year. Notice the stalk is pointing down, so don't forget turn the clump over to get some easily nabbed tubers that may be there. From last year or 06, marked for dividing. This kind of clump is a real gift: tubers usually only take one cut, are widely spaced, eyes bulging. Happy dividing.

Thanks, mboston -- I looked at that book at googlebooks. Somehow I get the feeling the person who did this is just not quite as precise as Virginia L. Burton was. Not to talk down my own piece...maybe I'm wrong... I did see something really cool, though, and loved learning about her life with George Demetrios (didn't know that!) Here is a link that might be useful: This is her son!

Thanks for the clarifications! Those were both kind of my guess but I couldn't be sure. I just checked my design and the cabinets don't line up, so "phew!" :D At this point I have no clowns. We're looking at fairly neutral wood floors, white cabs, white appliances, and soapstone counters. I'm thinking the backsplash will be the place to bring in the clown but I can't even begin to think about it yet. I absolutely do not have an eye for this stuff, all I can think about is the fantastic storage space and wide expanses of counters! It's unfortunate this thread has gotten so heated, it's been a wonderful source of information. I have hollow core doors. So what? It's an 80s split foyer, it's never going to be the pinnacle of class. That's part of the challenge of doing the kitchen, not "over designing" it for the house. I want a kitchen that I love and works the way I want and need it to without it looking completely out of place in both the house and the neighborhood. If I'm doing something stupid I want you to tell me! Yes, it stung to have my design torn apart and be told I "couldn't" have the one thing I'd always dreamed of: a cooktop in the island. But instead of storming off I took a long hard look at my design, thought through the REASONS why it was a bad idea, and eventually agreed. Now I have a design I'm even happier about and utmost confidence in it.