My condolences to Jim Waddick and others who are on the receiving end of this year's bizarre and bad weather conditions. A ninety percent loss of hellebore flowers and ten to thirty percent loss of daffodil flowers are losses I've never experienced - and never want to experience. We've had overnight drops into the mid-twenties, but those lows were not extended enough to do significant damage. For instance, Magnolia stellata, caught more or less in full bloom, shows only slight browning here and there. Dracunculus vulgaris, which is over a foot out of the ground, shows no damage. Temperatures in that range have no discernable effect on hellebores, daffodils and other early risers. I can count tree peony flower buds now, and they are not damaged by these temperatures either. Incidentally, Jim Waddick's zone 5 Kansas City garden seems to be on about the same schedule as my zone 7 Montgomery County, Maryland garden. Jim McKenney