REB/CULT: Slow growth in winter

Rick's not the only lister who doesn't get to forget the struggle in
winter, although he may be alone in getting to do his work in shirt
sleeves. Here in the South, we Arkies also have to think about what's going
on out-of-doors.

Two of my little guys, LO HO SILVER and the Byers cultivar HOT, have
bloomstalks gradually creeping upward. The stalks appeared just before our
first freeze in November. Apparently they are growing a bitty bit every
time the weather pops up to 60. We're having a lot of hard freeze nights,
but never a full week in a row, of course. On average we seem to waffle
from mid-30s to mid-50s. But there have been a few odd days in the 70s and
quite a few nights in the high 20s. We've had a lot of frost, but just a
little ice and no snow.

When the sun comes out and it's warm enough to wander about barefoot, I
spend a few minutes pinching winter weeds and cussing at whatever's eating
the lettuce. Sometimes I turn the compost.

My quarterbred seedlings, which began emerging after the first frost, are
now 11 strong. I tried brushing chopped leaf around a few but have left the
others bare. They're also obviously growing.

Among the established TBs, all look a little tatty, but I see new fans here
and there. A new start of TITAN'S GLORY has come down with that putty-color
rot, not the stinky yellow Erwinia, but deadly just the same. I wish I knew
where this crud came from. It starts at the growth point, pinches off the
fan and then proceeds down the rhizome. It turns the firm flesh into a
putty-textured, putty-colored stuff that weeps when you compress it. In the
summer it knocked the main rhizome out of a fat new start of EARTH SONG,
but fortunately that was a Superstition acquisition and so came with
several healthy offsets, which have survived the dismemberment and death of
their mother.

Among the water plants, the only cultivar that hasn't held its green under
our freezes and thaws is CAT MOUSAM, an I. versicolor. But it has new
leaves starting, so I'm not at all worried about it. All the LAs have
stopped adding leaves, but the spurias are actively growing.

celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas
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