Re: drainage & survival

Marge, 
	you wrote:
>Those gardening on sandy soil in colder climates need to chime in
>here about what 'tender' type plants they have managed to grow in the
>ground.

I'm not sure it qualifies as a tender plant, but a zone 5 *Geranium
'Rozanne' came through a difficult winter/spring season here in northern NY
zone 4 after I planted it down in our sandy meadow garden.  I bought it and
an Androsace lanuginosa at an end of season sale in SE Pennsylvania,
carried it back to NY and planted it along with many other
plants/shrubs/tree on November 21st; very late for this location.  (Rozanne
is looking great and the Androsace is following just fine albeit less
vigorously -- I may have worried them out of the ground by checking every
day for weeks.)

*For anyone not familiar with G. 'Rozanne', it'a a hybrid -- Geranium
himalayense and Geranium wallichianum 'Buxton's Variety' -- that  occurs
naturally.  I had gone to the nursery looking for 'Johnson's Blue' and
bought 'Rozanne' because I was curious.

Although we lost a couple of plants, not many, (more among those that
didn't get into the ground but were protected nearer the house) I am sold
on the sandy-soil-in-colder-climates idea -- at least to get a new plant
safely through an impending winter.  My particular meadow is sandy because
it borders a river.  The soil 30 yards away, near the house, alternates
between clay and sand and inbetween; we have woods behind us to the north,
meadow sloping down in the front of the house, and the river beside all.
I'm sure we're zone 4, but not sure whether 4a or 4b, St. Lawrence County,
NY.  

Alyce Elliott

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