fall crocus

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Thu, 12 Aug 2004 10:09:56 PDT
Dave Karnstedt wrote,
As for Oregon being "cool"  -- temperatures each day of this past week have
>been in the mid-nineties with a repeat forecast again for today.  Sheesh!!

True; but the nights, at least at my home (which is about 1000 feet higher 
in elevation than Dave's) are in the fifties F (10-15 degrees C), and the 
humidity has mostly been below 20%. This explains much of the difference 
between plants that do well in hot weather on the North American east coast 
and those that do well in it on the west coast.

However, I don't think crocuses are affected much by this, since at the 
depth they lie dormant, the soil temperature doesn't vary much from day to 
night.

I do suspect, however, that some species of crocus are more attractive to 
predators than others and are eaten preferentially (this is just an 
anecdotal observation). C. banaticus is always eaten here in the garden, 
but C. speciosus seems never to be. Dave is right that C. speciosus does 
well in summer-irrigated sites, and C. vernus also prefers summer moisture.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA



More information about the pbs mailing list