As a gardener who is always trying new plants, many of which are unlikely to succeed under my conditions. Im also interested in ways to retain plants adapted to climates very different to my own. Speaking very broadly, the easiest plants to accommodate in this regard are herbaceous plants which are not in active growth during the winter and not cold hardy enough to survive without protection of some sort. Herbaceous plants of comparable winter hardiness but which are in active growth during the winter form another group for which, under my conditions, cold frames have often provided an acceptable solution.
After youve been doing this for a while, it becomes apparent that it is a lot easier to accommodate slightly cold tender plants than to accommodate plants which do not thrive in heat and humidity. Other than Nearing frames, I dont know of any practical solution for such plants. I dont consider putting plants into the refrigerator a practical solution, although Ive done it for certain plants. Heres why Im bringing this up: where I live, in the greater Washington, D.C. area, I grow a few martagon lilies but am not notably successful with this group. Im not the only one, and the traditional explanation for their poor performance is that they cant take the heat. Until recently, I never much challenged that explanation. But Ive learned that martagons are grown successfully in the State of Victoria, Australia. One Melbourne area grower Ive had a bit of correspondence with experiences temperatures in the range of 30-35º C (86-95 F) in the shade, but on rare occasions up to 45 º C (113 F) in the shade and even higher in the sun. But there is one big difference between here and there: the relative humidity during Melbournes hot season is about 5%; here its closer to 100% at times. So Ive changed my lament from blame the heat to blame the humidity. If it culprit is the humidity, can anyone explain in laymans terms the physiological basis for that? Jim McKenney [email protected] 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
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