So, the birth of my son made spring gardening damned hard to do this year. Frankly, looking back on it, it's a wonder I got anything in the ground with all the hullabaloo in our lives in may/june! The biggest issue by far was that delays in setting out plants caused a lot of plants to become rootbound. Nowhere was this more evident than with my artichoke experiment. My 10 Emerald plants, which I started from seed in February, never took off once I finally got them in the ground in June. They are currently about 16" tall, reasonably healthy but not vigorous and certainly not flowering... despite my painstaking care in attempting to vernalize them in the spring. I'm curious as to what folks think I should do with them at this point. Will they exhibit greater growth in their second season? Or are they doomed to runtiness (made that up) for their lifespan? If it's worth giving them another year, how should I care for them over the winter months? I'd say our temps are in the 20's most of the winter with a week or 2 of aughts and teens thrown in to spice things up. Occasionally a subzero day. Last winter was the first in a while with consistent snow cover over the winter months. Having endured the first year of a perennial lifecycle, it'd sure be nice to enjoy a harvest next season! Your thoughts are appreciated.