Re: Carnations
The fact that any carnations at all survived a zone 3 winter is a miracle. Crown rot is
a common killer of members of the dianthus family, caused by a fungus that infects
plants with poor drainage or matted organic matter around their basal foliage.
Loosely piling evergreen boughs around your carnations is a better way of protecting
them from wind chill and unseasonable weather than mulching them; or you can mulch
them with stone chips, around which water tends not to collect.
Dont assume your brown plants are dead until spring is further advanced. Sometimes
dianthuses green up surprisingly, just when you are sure they have gone to meet
their Maker.
Rand
Rand Lee, Horticultural Writer & Editor
President and Founder, American Dianthus Society
(http://www.nhn.uoknor.edu/%7Ehoward/ads.html)
Editor, American Cottage Gardener ( http://trine.com/GardenNet/ACG/)
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/2903
1306 Lujan Street, Santa Fe NM 87505-3220 USA
Telephone: (505-438-7038).
Email to randbear@nets.com
Zone 5b-6a
"Who would look dangerously up at Planets [who] might
safely look downe at Plants?" --- John Gerard, 1597
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- References:
- Carnations
- From: "Roger Friesen" <strange@MTS.Net>
