My cold frames got a real test last night: a cold front arrived on winds which roared through the night. Wind speeds of up to 50 mph were predicted, although since I don’t have an anemometer I can’t say just how strong they were here. I can say that this morning at about 7 A.M. the temperature was 12 º F. I made a quick effort to cover the frames with a tarp late yesterday afternoon, but the tarp was not long enough to cover both frames. When there was only one frame to cover, I was able to cover the one frame on all exposed sides. With two frames side by side, not only were the ends left exposed but winds easily got under the tarp. The winds howled all night and into the morning. There was a news report of a truck being blown off the highway. When I checked the plants in the frames today all seemed fine. Even the Chilean Tropaeolum look fine. The garden forms of Tropaeolum majus are so extremely freeze sensitive that it’s hard for me to believe that these Chilean species will survive the winter even in a cold frame. A big florists’ cyclamen in one of the frames also looks fine. Some snow drops moved into the frame before the big (nearly two foot) snow fall which started on Dec. 18 are still blooming in the snug frame. Daytime temperatures did not get above freezing today, so this is a good test for the cold frames. So far, so good… And I’m off now to buy a larger tarp. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/