You're forgiven. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jane McGary" <janemcgary@earthlink.net> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 1:29 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] cold weather miscellany > Like Robin I appreciate all the supportive comments, many of them > from people who live in parts of North America where it is routinely > colder than the Pacific coast states. This morning a friend and I > agreed that looking at the thermometer these days is about like > looking at the scale when one has not been dieting enough: Don't tell > me, I don't want to know. We're expecting one more day of severe > cold, especially in areas away from the river gorges where the wind > is dying down; I live in a river gorge (the Clackamas) so get quite a > lot of continental wind when there is a big Pacific low, as now. Last > night the TV weatherman showed how the California storm is going to > move right across the center of North America, bringing awful > conditions as far as the Midwest, because the jet stream has dipped > so sharply to the south. > > I should not have allowed my keyboard to engage directly from my > emotions, without filtering the output through the brain: I'm not > depressive! But anyone can be momentarily cast down by a combination > of too much work, too much volunteering, east wind, frozen plants, > icy roads, and a foreboding family eruption over elder care. > > Frozen plants are not something to agonize over forever. One of our > many gardening physicians once told me that if his rare plants die, > he can always get another one, unlike the case when patients die. I > usually am philosophical about losing plants to the weather, feeling > that they weren't "meant to be here," like all the roses I dug up and > burned because they got black spot in our climate. I do feel awful, > however, if I know I could have done more to prevent losses, and > didn't for what may not have been a good reason (like spending a > whole day driving around delivering the NARGS seeds for packaging). > And when one does make an effort to share, it's very disappointing to > have promised some plant (almost impossible to obtain in the USA) to > someone and then have to tell them it has died out; for example, I > promised Galanthus peshmenii to two US galanthophiles, and I'm not > sure it will survive this cold snap, and John Grimshaw was very kind > to send me a start of it some years ago. There is a whole set of > bulbs and Ranunculaceae that are relatively inaccessible to American > gardeners, primarily those that have ephemeral seed, and those of us > who do somehow (!) acquire them must make every effort to propagate > and distribute them. Then when we lose them, we may be able to get > them back; and when we ourselves are gone, the plants will continue > to please others. > > Jane McGary > NORTHwestern Oregon, USA > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/