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Re: Christmas Cheer?

At 20:01 24/12/97 +0000, Valerie Dennison wrote:
>What a Christmas!
>Next year it  definitely is Christmas away. We have been under seige from
>gales of up to 100 miles per hour for the past 24 hours. We have been
>without electricity since yesterday afternoon until an hour ago (5.00 p.m.)
>and amidst the candles and stoical attempts to rescue the Christmas spirit
>through ....board games?!!  we find that we have no water; the local pumping
>station has been hit by the storms.

Well,one hundred miles north of you in Mayo we're glad we stayed at home!
Our plans to travel to Kerry for Christmas fell through ...otherwise we'd be
in a storm -swept converted boathouse on Valentia Island with no heating ,
light or cooking facilities!This part of the country didn't fare too
badly..I went out to inspect greenhouse and polytunnel in some trepidation
when I read your posting but they are both standing yet.We had no power cuts
despite high winds which whipped my weed-suppressing carpets off the garden
and draped them along the hedges.Lobelia elgonensis, still small enough to
be covered by a plastic pint-pot,is unscathed and even Artemesia californica
,although somewhat  bedraggled,is surviving ( no roots on the cuttings so
far, Sean!).Echium pininiana ,however,although at 20 months old still in
place .. growing horizontally for the first 12 inches ! ...looks dead.My
last plant didn't survive its first winter outdoors either, although it
grows well and self seeds only 15 miles north of us.

>I have had the time (having nothing else to do
>besides keep the home fires burning) to look through my lovely new Phillips
>and Rix book, hot off the press - "Conservatory and Indoor Plants . Vol. 2."

Yes, Santa delivered that one to this address as well! It will be
interesting to see if some of the young plants I am growing can survive much
lower temperatures than the ones suggested in the book.Araujia sericofera
made it through its first winter in a pot outdoors in temperatures of -7c,
quite unscathed, and is now looking quite happy in the garden( apart from
being pawed by a pony who tasted it and tried to eliminate it).The
min.temp.suggested in the book is 0 c.so there may be hope for some of the
others in our least rain-drenched corners too!

And to all Medit-planters  and especially the one reading her Conservatory
Plants vol 2 in the 'real' Frozen North with a foot of snow and temps of -25c
....Hello ,Ingrid  :-))..all good wishes for 1998!
 
Jane
Rep of Ireland
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