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Sat Apr 25 05:21:10 CEST 1998

hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL> Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
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From: "Jack Lambert (RJL6)" <rjl6 at CORNELL.EDU>
Subject: Re: mystery
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Rand, You note that >>>>   >I lost a whack of second and third year A.
sikokianum tubers .....<<<<

I don't know what got yours, Rand, but after twenty five years of ditzyin=g
around with them, it is clear that I lose them, in all sizes and stages o=f
vigor, because of late frost.  They start too early for long term surviva=l
here.  I've used every trick I know, such as siting them in places best
referred to as the "Siberia" of the yard (where snowdrops bloom two month=s
later than everywhere else), *and* in the deep duff of a two different
small dry-ish shaded woodland beds, *and* among other smaller bulb foliag=e
(which usually offers good protection, a sort of foliage blanket, for oth=er
kinds of plant material that can be damage by late frost).  No matter.  T=he
effect is zippo.  Sometime within five or six year period, a late frost -
and we get them through the first week of June - zaps them.

I have found it hard to manage them by providing them with a winter
vacation site in the refrigerator as they break out there when they are
ready to go, which is always way too early for outdoor planting.  Potted
and held in the greenhouse, they go dormant early, by the mid-summer.  La=st
year when they went dormant, I (stupidly) planted them out and so they al=l
popped up ready to go again in October - meaning they had to be "rescued"=,
that is, potted up and brought back into the greenhouse, babysat until th=ey
could be allowed to go dormant, stored, and now of course they are up and
going, repotted and needing to be tended as it is way too early for them =to
go outside.

They are gorgeous - but it won't be for long.

Nina