pbs Digest, Vol 38, Issue 8

Laura Grant lauragrant1947@gmail.com
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:46:29 PDT
I garden on the north facing slope of Niagara Escarpment, on the south side
of Lake Ontario. Our winters are cold and without reliable snow cover.
I love to grow many tender bulbs and created sandy bed, close to the house,
facing south. After number of years experimenting with winter protection
materials I came up with what works for me and would like to share with the
group.
I take contractor grade, plastic garbage bags, fill them with
"Styrofoam peanuts" that are used in packaging. I seal the top of the bags
with duck tape. When the "pillow" is done, it should be minimum of 4" thick
all around. These are placed on top of my tender bulbs in the winter and
than covered  with the "frost blanket" from Lee Valley Tools so the wind
does not blow the "pillows" away. On any warm day during the winter, I lift
the "pillows" off to check on pests and give the dormant bulbs some fresh
air.
I had problems with  voles making a cozy winter home and feasting on my
expensive bulbs. It remains to be a challenge so I keep feeding them with
peanut butter blended with Vitamin D in hope to reduce their numbers. Since
we have number of predators around I hesitate to use poisons. I would use
poisons if I could be sure they will die underground out of reach of cats,
owls etc. A few barn cats would help me out.
Any suggestions in vole exterminations would be most welcome.
Laura
from Niagara on the Lake, Ontario



On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 9:20 AM James Waddick <jwaddick@kc.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi Jonathan,
>
>         I tried this for a few years getting bulbs from various sources
> and trying various protection. Although it grew from the bulbs OK, I never
> had any survie even the mildest winter here.  I never tried it in my frostm
> free greenhouse, but that wasn’t the point.
>
>         Sigh            Jim
>
>
>
> On Apr 9, 2020, at 7:21 AM, Jonathan Knisely <jpsknisely@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >   3. Pasithea caerulea (Rimmer deVries)
> >
>
> I like this--I'm a sucker for blue flowers. Presumably with its wide
> natural distribution within Chile, there are some selections with greater
> hardiness. Does anyone have experience with this in parts of the United
> States with summer rains and winter temperatures down below freezing ((like
> Connecticut)?
>
> >
> Jonathan Knisely
> New Haven, CT
> USDA 6a
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
>
> Dr. James Waddick
> 8871 NW Brostrom Rd
> Kansas City, MO 64152-2711
> USA
> Phone     816-746-1949
>
>
>
>
>
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> http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
>
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