Boyce: We're certainly far south of Chicago, but Scilla natalensis flowers great here every year, with a low in 2008/9 of 9F. Tony Avent Plant Delights Nursery @ Juniper Level Botanic Garden 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F USDA Hardiness Zone 7b email tony@plantdelights.com website http://www.plantdelights.com/ phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent Boyce Tankersley wrote: > It was a very pleasant surprise to find flowering outdoors in USDA zone > 5b, just northwest of Chicago, Illinois, a Scilla natalensis (Merwilla > plumbea) grown from seed obtained through the PBS seed exchange 10 years > ago. > > For years I coddled the Scilla in containers indoors in anticipation of > spikes with dozens of flowers; then a post came through PBS that > mentioned that they never bloomed in containers. Uggh, 7 years of > misspent effort. Given that my collection of non-hardy plants had > exceeded the available space in our home, the Scilla and a number of > other 'probably not hardy' bulbs were planted in a south facing flower > bed that receives reflected heat from the aluminum siding. > > It is a good foot away from the house foundation in an area where Canna > freeze out. > > I kept 1 container indoors - and indeed it still has not flowered. > > For those not familiar with the Chicago winter of 2008-2009, we spent > most of the winter with temperatures well below freezing and dipped for > almost a week into temperatures in the -10 to -16 degree F range. > > Not hot enough for hallucinations yet; am I just lucky or have others > had it survive outdoors in continental climates? > > Boyce Tankersley > Director of Living Plant Documentation > Chicago Botanic Garden > 1000 Lake Cook Road > Glencoe, IL 60022 > tel: 847-835-6841 > fax: 847-835-1635 > email: btankers@chicagobotanic.org > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > >