Help, Collen Goff is speaking from 7-8 on dahlias. You are welcome to hear what she has to share about dahlias. But I am was hoping to finish the night with native bulbs. Anyone in the area willing to come and enlighten us on the joys of going native with bulbs? This is a free program by the Master Gardeners open to the public. We will buy you dinner at ODs before class. Collen Goff of Elkhorn Gardens will talk about Dahlias Thursday October 11, 2012 Start: 7:00-8pm Dahlias Then roundtable discussion on native bulbs 9:00 pm Cost: Free Location: South County Roundtable, Grange Hall, 8191 Swanston Ln,Gilroy Please join our Roundtable for an in-depth discussion of dahlias and bulbs. Now is the time to plant for a stunning spring display! Some of us meet for dinner at ODs before class. Arrive between 5:30 and 6. 28 Martin St. Gilroy, Ca 95020 Dear optimists and pessimists, While you were all arguing over the glass being half full or half empty, I drank it. Sincerely, an opportunist. Sue Cancilla-Conde weedeater@earthlink.net http://www.mastergardeners.org/ ________________________________ From: David Pilling <pbs@pilling.demon.co.uk> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 4:16 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] Cold hardiness of potted plants left outdoors in winter Hi, A fresh look at ebay, revealed that temperature loggers are now available at low cost. They're a small device which will run for a year off an internal battery recording the temperature every so often and they can be plugged into a USB port to read off the data. So discovering how low the temperatures underground go is now practical. Oddly I recall an undergraduate problem I was given which gave a mathematical model of temperature variation in the ground - a lot must already be known, but of course not under anyone's precise circumstances. I doubt it would be of much interest if I carried out this experiment, I have a poor man's version, I leave dahlia tubers just under the surface, and these usually survive. In the two "worst winter for 30 years", 2009-10 and 2010-11, I lost a lot of bulbs on shelves in the greenhouse, but the bulbs I would expect to survive, narcissus, galanthus, tulips, crocus in pots all survived. I still think they are hardier than others. However in those desperate winters, the minimum temperature was around minus 5C, that's with living close to the sea in North West England. -- David Pilling email: david@pilling.demon.co.uk web: http://www.davidpilling.net/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/