Thanks, Jane, for telling us about your conditions. I wish everyone would do this a bit more. I have very naive notions about conditions in other parts of the world. I'm one of those American gardeners who is now beginning to realize that much of coastal western Europe -the areas of most intense traditional focus for American gardeners -corresponds to zone 8 in terms of winter temperatures. But zone 8 London has almost nothing else in common with zone 8 North Carolina. That's no doubt why the Sunset zones were developed for the west coast. Invest in a growth chanber? I thought that's what the air-conditioned house was! At 09:44 AM 1/22/2004 -0800, you wrote: >At 09:37 PM 1/21/2004 -0500, Jim McKenney wrote: > >>Here's what I'm about to try for Colchicum luteum and, should I be able to >>acquire another one, Iris winogradowii: after the plants enter dormancy, >>I'll give them a few weeks at prevailing temperatures and then try storing >>them in the refrigerator for the rest of the summer. The refrigerator here >>gets opened so many times a day that the temperature is probably in the low >>40s F much of the time, if that. >> >>Has anyone else out there tried this? I would like to try this with some >>alpine Saxifraga, too. Maybe even experiment with pushing them into two >>growth/dormancy cycles per calendar year. > >No, what they actually would need is nearly dry storage at a temperature >near but perhaps not below freezing, through the WINTER, and in the summer, >sharp night cooling and low humidity with excellent air circulation. Day >temperatures could be warm. Such conditions are, I am told, provided in >hot, humid Japan at a botanic garden with refrigerated plunge benches and >climate controlled atmosphere. Unless you invest in a growth chamber, you >are unlikely to make true high alpines very happy in Washington, D.C. >However, some Saxifraga should survive there with careful attention to >watering and frequent spraying for fungus infection, which is, I believe, >their main problem in humid summers. > >I have not succeeded with either I. winogradowii (had it about 5 years) or >Colchicum luteum (3 years maximum), but I try bulbs like this along with my >alpines, which are plunged in pots on my covered porch facing east or >north, watered very carefully winter and summer. However, summers here are >quite dry and at my elevation, night cooling is sharp indeed -- as much as >40 degrees F between day and night, even on the hottest summer days. > >Jane McGary >Northwestern Oregon > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >