[pbs] Re: TOW - Ferraria and cold temperatures
Mary Sue Ittner
msittner at mcn.org
Mon Dec 27 11:30:40 EST 2004
Dear all,
Thanks to all of you who posted on this topic during a time of year which
can be very hectic. I am wondering if all the Ferrarias offset as much a F.
crispa. I got one Ferraria ferrariola from the BX and Joyce. It has never
bloomed and remains one corm. I started some more seed from Silverhill to
keep it company and it germinated mostly the second year instead of the
first after being left outside and dried off and in this third year none of
them are up. They may still be there however as I did not repot them.
There were corms of Ferraria divaricartia that I received from Jim Robinett
when he asked me to rescue the bulbs he could no longer care for. There
were 12 corms, first planted in 2000. I gave half to Mendocino Coast
Botanical Gardens the next year after they had not bloomed (nor had they
increased.) I don't know if they ever bloomed for them (Lily, Kristina are
you reading this to say?), but they have not bloomed yet for me. They went
from 7 to 10 the next year and to 14 since then. That is not a huge
increase as corms grow. Following Lauw's advice I have watered them early
and some of them come up in September each year. I've grown them in the
structure that is outside, but covered on top so controlled the amount of
rainfall they got to some degree. This year they went into one of my raised
beds so I'll see if that works better.
The question David raised intrigues me. One would expect in the greenhouse
there would be some protection from the wind that would help that might not
occur outside even if the temperatures were the same. We all experience
parts of our garden where they is some protection from other shrubs that
helps. Also in the greenhouse you'd expect there would be protection from
the harsh early morning sun which is so damaging to plants that are icy.
The winter of 1990 described and remembered as the Arctic Freeze in
California when many of us lost a lot of tender plants had been unusually
mild and dry prior to the cold. There were a lot of people writing about
why it was so severe to give us tips to prevent this problem from happening
again. One theory was that the switch from so warm to so cold all at once
was part of the problem. Another strongly touted by the Santa Cruz
Arboretum (they had African and Australian plants that were damaged and
killed so were especially interested) was that the soil was dry and the
plants were not hydrated. I had an offline discussion with someone about
this (Mark McDonough possibly?) and he said that was absolutely not true.
That it was the opposite. Dry plants would do better with cold
temperatures. Now that David has said he only waters during mild
temperatures and wonders if this is one reason for his plants tolerating
colder temperatures than you'd expect perhaps we can discuss this.
Mary Sue
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