Weather
J.E. Shields (Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:41:33 PST)

Good morning, all!

This morning, just before the sun really came up, my electronic thermometer
outdoors between my house and the greenhouses, registered a low of -9.9°F
(-23.3°C). The "official" temperature here in Westfield (given by the
Weather.com bug for zip code 46074) was -6°F (-21°C) at that time.

The sun is shining brightly now, on our fresh coating of snow, but the high
this afternoon is predicted to be around 0°F (ca -18°C) and tomorrow
morning they are predicting a low of about the same as today, perhaps -8°F.
The snow cover in only about 3 or 4 inches, and is likely to be blown
around a bit, which would leave many ares completely exposed.

This weather is going to reach all the way to the East Coast and well down
into the Gulf Coast states. Weather this cold does not hit the eastern half
of the USA very often. It will be interesting, come spring, to see what
effect it has on our outdoor bulb plantings.

I have scattered plantings of less hardy bulbs, including a few Gladiolus
oppositiflorus salmoneus, Galtonia candicans, Crinum bulbispermum, Crinum
(bulbispermum x graminicola), Crinum (bulbispermum roseum X lugardiae Natal
form), and Crinum variabile. All of these have survived for the last
several winters outdoors in the ground.

I have some newly planted (in May 2008) plants of Trillium simile, T.
erectum album, and T. luteum all from Gatlinburg, T. flexipes from Southern
Indiana, and probably a few more things that have slipped my mind for the
moment.

This will be an opportunity for us to see how tough some of our plants are.

Jim Shields
in Westfield, in central Indiana (USA)

*************************************************
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