Re: Freaks -- Weather Damage

"Never say 'always' or 'never' . . . ."  

But twenty years of gardening where bloom-season freezes are the norm has taught
me that oddities like flowers with 4 falls, or petals that are half
standard/half fall are the result of weather damage.  

1.	They appear in clusters, on a lot of different varieties at the same
time.

2.	Varieties with a long bloom season will have some flowers affected, some
unaffected.

3.	A variety severely affected one year will be completely unaffected the
next.  And vice versa.

It's not the susceptibility of individual varieties, but the timing of the
freeze that determines which bud is damaged and which escapes harm.  So the
answer is not in identifying varieties that performed well or poorly in one
year, but in selecting varieties that give a long, staggered bloom season rather
than an intense peak.  

Sharon McAllister (73372.1745@compuserve.com)
Souther New Mexico
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