Cold winter miscellany
Kathleen Sayce (Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:02:36 PST)

I too had a collection of Hippeastrums in 1985, when we had a week of
temperatures well below 20F, ending with freezing rain, and just to
make things interesting, two layers of plastic on the dining room
windows, because we were rebuilding that wall. All the plumbing
froze, my bulbs (in the house) froze, and then during the ice storm,
the power went out. A day and a half later, the thaw set in, but I
still do not grow Hippeastrum.

If it can't live outside, in pots or the ground, I don't grow it. Yet
various comments on PBS the last couple of years made me reconsider
this ban.

I came close to considering spousicide [i know there is a more
accurate word, but I'm not going looking for it now] on I-5 last week
when mine suggested that the perfect place for a cold frame was a
spot I've eyed for years, yet is full of precious old pipes and
rotting lumber that he's got stored for some future project. Jane's
and other's comments on cold frames have helped me figure out the
right spot; I have the glazing material; now I'm waiting for a
certain spouse to clear the site. And I do not want to think about
what I might have lost this week because I don't yet have said cold
frame in place. At least I did haul in pots of Scadoxus, Isemene,
Moraea, so they can spend the winter, too warm, but not frozen.

Some day my cold frame may come. . .
Kathleen
With overnight lows around 16F, and slowly warming, on the PNW coast.