• Confused Plants

    From John McGaw@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 16 17:29:25 2022
    On the 10th of January I did a quick survey of my beds while strolling down
    the walk toward the mailbox. I noted that narcissi, crocus, and what I took
    to be a stray tulip or three were breaking ground and up to a hand's
    breadth high. Hyacinth are nosing through the mulch. One lone yellow crocus
    and a few creeping phlox and dianthus were in bloom. Don't they know that
    this is the middle of the bloody winter? A week ago there were a few blooms
    on an azalea at the end of the drive. This is happening in central East Tennessee, not the tropics. How are plants supposed to survive this sort of confusion?

    --
    Bodger's Dictum: Artifical intelligence
    can never overcome natural stupidity.

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  • From David E. Ross@21:1/5 to John McGaw on Sun Jan 16 15:31:21 2022
    On 1/16/2022 2:29 PM, John McGaw wrote:
    On the 10th of January I did a quick survey of my beds while strolling down the walk toward the mailbox. I noted that narcissi, crocus, and what I took to be a stray tulip or three were breaking ground and up to a hand's
    breadth high. Hyacinth are nosing through the mulch. One lone yellow crocus and a few creeping phlox and dianthus were in bloom. Don't they know that this is the middle of the bloody winter? A week ago there were a few blooms on an azalea at the end of the drive. This is happening in central East Tennessee, not the tropics. How are plants supposed to survive this sort of confusion?

    Today, I pruned two rose bushes in front. The 'Honor' hybrid tea and
    '4th of July' are still blooming, so I left them alone. Two roses in
    back are also still blooming: floribunda 'Iceberg' and climbing 'Peace'.
    African daisies on my hill started blooming. My Camellia sasanqua 'Chansonett' is covered with pink flowers. I just saw the first grape
    hyacinth flower spike. No, they are not confused. This is southern California. :)

    --
    David E. Ross
    Climate: California Mediterranean, see <http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html>
    Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

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  • From David E. Ross@21:1/5 to David E. Ross on Sun Jan 16 17:17:33 2022
    On 1/16/2022 3:31 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
    On 1/16/2022 2:29 PM, John McGaw wrote:
    On the 10th of January I did a quick survey of my beds while strolling down >> the walk toward the mailbox. I noted that narcissi, crocus, and what I took >> to be a stray tulip or three were breaking ground and up to a hand's
    breadth high. Hyacinth are nosing through the mulch. One lone yellow crocus >> and a few creeping phlox and dianthus were in bloom. Don't they know that
    this is the middle of the bloody winter? A week ago there were a few blooms >> on an azalea at the end of the drive. This is happening in central East
    Tennessee, not the tropics. How are plants supposed to survive this sort of >> confusion?

    Today, I pruned two rose bushes in front. The 'Honor' hybrid tea and
    '4th of July' are still blooming, so I left them alone. Two roses in
    back are also still blooming: floribunda 'Iceberg' and climbing 'Peace'.
    African daisies on my hill started blooming. My Camellia sasanqua 'Chansonett' is covered with pink flowers. I just saw the first grape hyacinth flower spike. No, they are not confused. This is southern California. :)


    Oops! The climbing 'Peace' rose finally finished blooming, and the one
    spike of grape hyacinth is quite faded. I just now revised my Web page
    that lists what is blooming. See <http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_bloom.shtml>.

    --
    David E. Ross
    "A Message to Those Who Are Not Vaccinated"
    See my <http://www.rossde.com/index.html#vaccine>.

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to John McGaw on Mon Jan 17 00:21:52 2022
    John McGaw wrote:

    On the 10th of January I did a quick survey of my beds while strolling down the walk toward the mailbox. I noted that narcissi, crocus, and what I took to be a stray tulip or three were breaking ground and up to a hand's
    breadth high. Hyacinth are nosing through the mulch. One lone yellow crocus and a few creeping phlox and dianthus were in bloom. Don't they know that this is the middle of the bloody winter? A week ago there were a few blooms on an azalea at the end of the drive. This is happening in central East Tennessee, not the tropics. How are plants supposed to survive this sort of confusion?

    they'll figure it out eventually.


    songbird

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  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to John McGaw on Mon Jan 17 19:41:59 2022
    On 1/16/2022 17:29, John McGaw wrote:
    On the 10th of January I did a quick survey of my beds while strolling
    down the walk toward the mailbox. I noted that narcissi, crocus, and
    what I took to be a stray tulip or three were breaking ground and up to
    a hand's breadth high. Hyacinth are nosing through the mulch. One lone
    yellow crocus and a few creeping phlox and dianthus were in bloom. Don't
    they know that this is the middle of the bloody winter? A week ago there
    were a few blooms on an azalea at the end of the drive. This is
    happening in central East Tennessee, not the tropics. How are plants
    supposed to survive this sort of confusion?

    Same issue in Ohio, I have Iriuses and a few others popping up. As of
    the past 24 hours, they are now under a foot of snow from a freak snow
    storm... I guess we were over-due, and had almost no snow this year. I
    don't know if they are going to do well (or live) to spring, but I guess
    I'll find out.

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  • From The Bjornsdottirs - Reinhilde@21:1/5 to John McGaw on Wed Feb 28 03:18:29 2024
    Hi John,

    They don't know where they are. They just know how warm the soil and air
    around them is, and once their leaves are above ground, how much water and light ( = sugar, = building blocks and a fuel if you're a plant) is
    available.

    Depending on how they deal with unseasonable weather when they're supposed
    to be growing, they may fare better or worse. To them, the re-onset of
    winter will be like having gotten started late in summer and getting
    frozen up early.

    Again, they don't know where or when they are. They just know temperature, light, water, nutrients, and their fungal/bacterial friends and enemies.

    As of Sun, 16 Jan 2022 17:29:25 -0500, in message 9%0FJ.203136$6a3.158046@fx41.iad, John McGaw <Nobody@Nowh.ere> wrote:

    On the 10th of January I did a quick survey of my beds while strolling
    down the walk toward the mailbox. I noted that narcissi, crocus, and
    what I took to be a stray tulip or three were breaking ground and up to
    a hand's breadth high. Hyacinth are nosing through the mulch. One lone
    yellow crocus and a few creeping phlox and dianthus were in bloom. Don't
    they know that this is the middle of the bloody winter? A week ago there
    were a few blooms on an azalea at the end of the drive. This is
    happening in central East Tennessee, not the tropics. How are plants
    supposed to survive this sort of confusion?

    --
    Reinhilde Bjornsdottir <zerda@umbrellix.net> - Member Switchposters United
    for Justice - <https://spufj.trd.is./>

    Some people don't like multiline signatures. I kindly request that they
    keep their concerns in their own brains. Usenet isn't what it used to be.
    The servers are more powerful, have more storage, and have faster uplinks
    in even the worst cases. Long sigs can't hurt you anymore.

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