RE: Cult Over Wintering

The survival of plants left lying on the ground over winter is one I can confirm. The ones left in a pile or individually on ground right beside planted ones, survive well well planted ones rot. This seems to have to do with straight physics, expansion and contraction with temperature.   Is the early spring the sun shines on the back of planted rhizomes and heats them up while the bottom of the rhizome is in the frozen ground. Heat expands, cold contracts. This results in cracks in skin and in comes the bacteria. This also happens in fall as weather is getting colder but still can be sunny days. The plants left lying in the open gets an even temperature and thus no cracks.

One solution is to provide mulch over winter. Also I have been planting the rhizomes deeper and this seems to help overwinter plants, allthough this is not a scientific experiment. Keith  Keppel also plants his rhizomes with several inches odf soil over the top and they certainly do well for him.
I have planted rhizomes left out of ground over winter and they do bloom. Althought later then the others and much shorter.

-- 
Chuck Chapman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Zone 4/5


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