snow cover; was: Re: [pbs] pushing envelopes

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net
Fri, 16 Jul 2004 10:23:15 PDT
At 07:06 PM 6/26/2004 -0400, Ellen Hornig wrote:

>We have excellent snow cover, and this is no doubt part of the explanation. 

I envy Ellen's snow cover. Here, several hundred miles south of Ellen,
where the winters are ostensibly milder, many of the plants she mentions
are not reliable in the open garden. Eucomis, Galtonia, Crocosmia, many
Kniphofia and others simply don't survive bad winters. Snow cover here is
brief and erratic. 

Years ago I had a conversation with a Canadian agriculturist who assured me
that cold as the air might be, down under the snow cover the temperature
was close to 32 degrees F. It's hard to believe, but Ellen's success in an
area with snow cover seems to support this view. 

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where we don't have reliable
snow cover, but we sure do have lots of mulch.


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