Glad you were prepared Jim and hoping it ends soon for you and everyone else affected. Here in NY we still have a thick layer of snow from about 3 weeks or so before but today is oddly warm (upper 40sF) and its melting fast. But not so fast that it will be gone before we freeze up again tonight and then a few inches more of snow may come on Thursday. Our winter low here about 20 miles n of NYC, according to accuweather, was 9F which is the same as last year (a very mild winter). The difference is that since mid January or so we switched from rather mild with freezing nights and above freezing days to solid freezing, lower, temps for many consecutive days and nights with a heavy snowfall two days after the temps dropped that has remained and occasionally been supplemented. Last winter there were almost no days with temps below freezing, and night temps were rarely what I consider severe (below 15F or so). I was finally able to shovel my way to the coldframe out back today and checked inside, things look remarkably fine as I could see the green leaves of a Gerbera, probably G ambigua, that I grew from seed among other things. The extra plastic I put on the frame just before the weather worsened and presumably also the thick snow covering paid off I guess. Over the next couple of weeks the weather is not going to be great but wont be extreme either and we will see daytime temps getting into the 40s and beyond at least some of those days. I can feel that the strength of the sun increasing as we move toward spring (when its actually out of course). I am reading reports on fb and elsewhere of what things are like in the middle of the country and also apparently even down into northern Mexico, it does sound awful. I have not heard anything about the overwintering monarchs in Mexico yet, I sure hope they dont get a bad frost in their montane overwintering grounds as they are already under much stress in recent years. Ernie DeMariez6/7 border but solid 7 or better recently. Only flowers blooming today are inside or buried in the snow _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>