Cold winter miscellany
J.E. Shields (Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:24:19 PST)

We are going to get some of that weather that his the West Coast. Right
now it is snowing. Yesterday we go 0.9 inch of rain, last night the
temperature hit a high of 47F, and since then the temperatures have been
dropping steadily. Right no it is snowing moderately. Tomorrow morning,
the low may drop to 11°F (ca. -11 C) and the high tomorrow is expected to
be only 18°F (ca. -8 C). After that, things should revert to more or less
seasonal conditions.

Anything not underground in inside by tonight is not going to be in good
shape this time tomorrow.

In around the mid- or late 1980s, we had a severe winter storm. The power
went out, the outdoor temperature dropped to -25°F (ca. -31 C). Without
power, the greenhouse temperature dropped to 15°F (ca. -9 C) for many
hours. I lost 100% of my collection of Doran's Hippeastrum species. I
stopped growing bulbs for years after that; but eventually come back to it,
even to growing Hippeastrum species again.

Interestingly, some orchids survived that freeze inside the greenhouse, as
did the Epiphyllum hybrids. Only Hippeastrum aulicum stenopetalum
survived, because it was in bloom and hence inside our home, which stayed
above freezing.

Jim Shields
in Westfield, Indiana
USA

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Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA