Variable Texas weather

Cynthia Mueller cynthiasbulbs@hotmail.com
Sun, 26 Jan 2014 08:33:36 PST
Two days ago, we had dark and heavy skies and snow. Yesterday morning, some snow was gone but icicles draped the roofs and garden plants. Today, at ten in the morning, I am outside in my short-sleeved shirt in brilliant light - in a totally cloudless sky.  In the shade the temperature is over 50F already.

My question: how do "winter growing" bulbs respond to this turmoil? How do the "summer growing" bulbs respond? Birds are beginning to sound like spring, roses' vegetative buds are swelling up. But temperatures in the lower 20s F are forecasted for two days from now.....last frost day is usually March 10th.

Easy-keeping crinums, many times hybrids with bulbispermum ancestry, leucojum aestivum, heat resistant old varieties of narcissus, Roman hyacinths, Ipheion, byzantine and dalenii hybrid gladiolus, Lilium longiflorum, L. formosanum, a few Hippeastrum such as Johnsonii and old garden varieties, cannas, Iris ochroleuca, I. Louisiana and I. pseudacorus, Lycorus radiata and aurea, are able to adapt to these mixed signals here. Habranthus and Zephyranthes can adapt to our growing conditions if they have sufficient cold resistance. Usually right on the borderline is Z. grandiflora. Sprekelia grows but does not bloom well. I wonder if they should be taken up in the winter? -Cynthia Mueller

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