south african bulbs
Jim McKenney (Tue, 16 Mar 2004 23:16:14 PST)

Back in late February, Tony Avent wrote:

Tony, how do things look now? I'm asking with two things in mind. For one,
I know from past experience here a couple of hundred miles north of you but
still in nominal zone 7 that borderline plants sometimes look fairly good
when seen after the first long freezing spell ends. But when there are
subsequent much milder freezing spells, they often very quickly go down.
This happened to me again this year with Arum dioscoridis. After the six to
seven 24 hour per day freeze we experienced in January and February this
year (often with no snow cover), Arum disocoridis looked pretty good. Then
we had a good thaw. It still looked good. Then we had freezes again. Within
a few days the foliage had gone papery and shredded in the wind.

I know you experienced a significant weather event in North Carolina
recently which we here in the Washington D.C. area missed. Have you had the
chance to check some of your survivors yet to see if they still are
survivors?

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland zone 7 where Arum dioscoridis is still alive
and may even have an inflorescence - but not a single leaf.