Moving In For the Winter

[Judy Glattstein]

After end-of-summer drought we have now been getting rain. And as Ian travels up the coast I expect even more. The weather continues to be cooler than expected, even for the end of September. Day by day I am shuttling pots of geophytes either into the greenhouse or into the basement, depending.

So today it was mirabilis on the move. I chopped off their tops - still some leaves and also a few flowers. And wheeled them into the basement. Interestingly, the cool weather apparently affects color - the last few flowers on 'Orange Crush' are a rather attractive soft rosy pink.

Rhodophiala bifida and Zephyranthes candida, and xAmarcrinum too, into the greenhouse. Which is getting crowded.

[Martin Bohnet]

My trouble about getting things inside mostly isn't the frost, that's easy to monitor - for me trouble is the water level, as even the winter growers should be almost dry when moving to frost-free quarters...after lots of rain until yesterday, now there's 1 1/2 dry weeks ahead - at the end of that I will have to move a lot of pots.