Well . . . it's Feb. 1 and still no snow to speak of (an inch or so, but already melted). Should I be concerned? I am primarily concerned about the oriental lilies. Temperatures are supposed to dip to -2 F. at night.
Lack of Snow
Seandor, I don't think your lilies care about snow. They are oblivious under the ground. It's your regular perennial going through freeze, thaw cycles that can be pushed up out of the ground & damaged. Snow helps them because it keeps them cold.
it also keeps them watered and acts as a mulch. Snow is a good thing, but I don't think you should worry about it too much.
Okay. I feel better now. Once in Kamloops British Columbia I spent almost $200 for bulbs (this was in the 1980s and it was a lot of money for us) No snow that year and the temperatures plunged to -30C. Needless to say, we hadn't mulched and we lost everything.
I have evergreen boughs over the bearded Iris (what is the plural?) but I left the perenials without mulch because that was recommended by Bluestone Perenials. We have had problems with fungus and plant rotting, so I thought I would try, thinking that snow would be the natural insulator.
I don't think this winter has been a problem, so far.
We had a really bad winter a few years ago, with lack of snow coupled with extreme temperature swings -- relatively balmy days that turned suddenly to sub-zero cold -- and that caused a lot of problems for many of us. Compared to that, this winter has been a cake walk.
That said, I do worry when the forecast warns of very cold nights ahead. Fortunately, thus far, here in coastal Maine we've maintained a thin snow cover, and the nights have turned out to be not so cold after all. My only worry is the perennials I've got in plastic pots, tucked in for the winter with wood chips, waiting for the ground to thaw to get planted in my new garden.
But lately, I'm not even worried so much about that. All I can think about is how much over-budget this whole cottage-building project is running, and how that is going to put a squeeze on my garden budget for at least the next couple of years.
Kas,
It's funny, we are not that far away from each other but our temps seem to be. It has been 5 degrees or lower almost every night lately. We reached 27 yeasterday during the day but the wind was awful. The nights have been terrible, 5, 0, -5, -8 and so on.
And I have just a bit more snow than a covering! But it we always seem to get more inland than on the coast.
DS braved the winds yesterday and took the Rhino out for a ride. It goes thru snow, mud, water , you name it!
Here he is trying out the snowbanks.
