We are slowly recovering from the recent cold spell and after nearly 2 ½ weeks the snow has receded from 75% of the garden. It is interesting to note the condition of some of the plants that were growing or appearing before the snow and cold blast came, some encouraged by the previous unseasonably warm weather into rather early growth, others behaving normally. Temperatures without snow got down into the single digits Fahrenheit; after the 12” of snow came, the coldest part of the garden got as low as 2F. However my wireless sensor under the snow never registered lower than 26F or higher than 31F. Various Adonis amurensis cultivars emerged as if nothing had happened, as did the first Crocus biflorus. Eranthis pinnatifida and a few other eranthis have woken up and are emerging, even though their raised beds are still solid ice an inch or two inches down. The wintergreen Fritillaria davidii is unmarked apart from a few minor scorches, F. thunbergii was emerging in several places and they are all OK; most of the early snowdrops are just fine, some flowers on one of the elwesii clumps that were up but unopened have keeled over irreversibly but others on the same clump are OK. The Florida panhandle Trillium underwoodii and SW Georgia Trillium decipiens were deliberately buried under 6” of chopped leaves and are just fine – some had completely unfurled leaves. Protection from rapid thawing and desiccating wind seems to be key for those, otherwise the leaves and stems collapse with no return. In the garden they will stand occasional nights in the teens (F) without harm, but not periods of prolonged freezing temperatures. As with many early plants a critical factor seems to be the length of time experienced below a certain critical temperature. I find with the early epimediums that the extending flower spikes will withstand a short dip into the low 20sF much better than a longer period in the mid-high 20s Over the past couple of years I’ve been mass planting (sacrificing?) as many Cyclamen species in the open garden as possible, in a variety of different microhabitats. Their response to the cold and snow has been interesting. C. pseudibericum, intaminatum, cilicium, alpinum (trochopteranthum), hederifolium and coum ssp. kusnetzowii (‘Kusnetzowii’) and most purpurascens have remained completely and utterly unfazed and unmarked. C. alpinum disappeared beneath snow in extended bud and over the past couple of days has just carried on where it left off. C. coum ssp. coum f. albissimum ‘Golan Heights’ have surprisingly stayed in pretty good condition and has resumed flowering, the leaves of the ‘regular’ (origin unknown) coum are pretty messed up, as usual, but the flowers seem to be OK. A few years ago I put a couple of C. elegans (coum ssp. elegans) and hederifolium ssp. confusum outside but brought them back into pots the following spring after the leaves were trashed. The additional C. elegans additions to the garden have completely defoliated again and most of the h. ssp. confusum are also in a sorry state, although some are OK. The provenance of the hederifolium ssp. confusum may be important but I didn’t track that for the plants I put outside. C. cyprium have also lost all leaves. Rather surprisingly, a number of mature (flowered) C. colchicum have pretty much defoliated also. I wasn’t expecting that. In all of the above cases the tubers are firm and I expect them to be OK. They are all at or just below the soil surface, covered with a layer of grit. Of course those that have defoliated will lose maybe 50% of the potential growing season, so that may have an effect down the road. However, crocus like C. goulimyi and other Greek or lowland Turkish species burn back maybe 50-75% by the end of the winter and they build up very nicely outside. The onco irises all put out new foliage in the fall and this is trashed in the winter but they don’t mind at all and continue to go from strength to strength, ditto for the larger Ipheions. Interestingly there is a lot of variation in the ‘hardiness’ of Sternbergia leaves and this seems to vary considerably within species. Some forms of S. sicula are completely undamaged, others burn back a bit and a few accessions burnt off completely. Of course the difference may be artificial if we’ve got our names mixed up – and the bigger sternbergias are definitely taxonomically confused! I let my small greenhouse get down to the middle 20s F and the Cyclamen persicum in there don’t object at all. As several folks have reported, they are significantly hardier than generally supposed. We are forecast for more cold and snow in 10 days so we’ll see what happens then – I’m sure much of what I’ve reported is very dependent upon the growth stage of the plant when the weather hits. Best, J. John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 801 327 1266 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b