SAFE NATURAL CURES & LIVING

Shipping season was long over for daylilies due to the coming winter frosts.  Even Southern California is not immune to the occasional dip to 30 or even 28 degrees, so shipping was not scheduled to resume until March.

Ask and you just might receive.

The grower was obliging, even envious, when told that the daylilies would be planted within walking distance of the ocean.  Coastal frost is extremely rare.  The live plants arrived in time for Christmas.  To the credit of the grower, the daylilies were also the largest we’d ever received.  Still, fingers were crossed and weather reports were checked daily.

But, Murphy’s law struck. 

It has snowed locally twice in recorded history, and there is a frost or two in the memories of some old folks.  But there it was — in print — frost was expected for two nights.  Along with the awful idea of being thought a liar came the desire to not cause the grower to disallow exceptions for anyone ever again.  Not to mention missing out on the beautiful flowers that were expected and being out a lot of money; these daylilies were prize winners and were priced as such. 

After researching books and the internet, protection for the daylily “nursery” was found to be simple and inexpensive.  Only two things were needed:  extra water and a thick layer of bark.  Watering before a frost increases the temperature of the soil, and bark mulch keeps heat in the soil.
 
The plants seemed not to have suffered from the frost, but only time would tell.  And tell it did.  The new plants bloomed in the middle of May — with blooms so large that they almost broke the tender little stems.  Some of the older plants had been in the ground for two years without their first bloom, so these new ones did live up to their reputations.  So did the grower that took a chance. 

If you have a special circumstance, let the grower know.  You just might find that rules are not always written in stone.

Technorati Tags: daylilies, growers, frost, gardening, plants, flowers, natural, money

Shipping season was long over for daylilies due to the coming winter frosts.  Even Southern California is not immune to the occasional dip to 30 or even 28 degrees, so shipping was not scheduled to resume until March.

Ask and you just might receive.

The grower was obliging, even envious, when told that the daylilies would be planted within walking distance of the ocean.  Coastal frost is extremely rare.  The live plants arrived in time for Christmas.  To the credit of the grower, the daylilies were also the largest we’d ever received.  Still, fingers were crossed and weather reports were checked daily.

But, Murphy’s law struck. 

It has snowed locally twice in recorded history, and there is a frost or two in the memories of some old folks.  But there it was — in print — frost was expected for two nights.  Along with the awful idea of being thought a liar came the desire to not cause the grower to disallow exceptions for anyone ever again.  Not to mention missing out on the beautiful flowers that were expected and being out a lot of money; these daylilies were prize winners and were priced as such. 

After researching books and the internet, protection for the daylily “nursery” was found to be simple and inexpensive.  Only two things were needed:  extra water and a thick layer of bark.  Watering before a frost increases the temperature of the soil, and bark mulch keeps heat in the soil.
 
The plants seemed not to have suffered from the frost, but only time would tell.  And tell it did.  The new plants bloomed in the middle of May — with blooms so large that they almost broke the tender little stems.  Some of the older plants had been in the ground for two years without their first bloom, so these new ones did live up to their reputations.  So did the grower that took a chance. 

If you have a special circumstance, let the grower know.  You just might find that rules are not always written in stone.

Technorati Tags: daylilies, growers, frost, gardening, plants, flowers, natural, money