Arum italicum protection

[Ray Maynard]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The Arums are a very tough group of plants and I really
think the spathes are great in the spring.  They really
have built in ant-freese and is amasing to see them
return up right after a severe freezes.

We live in Zone 8, it is sunny this morning at 9:30 AM it
is 23 degrees with church music reaching over this small
rural community in middle Georgia.  Ray Maynard
> Hi all aroid/woodland perennial enthusiasts,
> Seasons greetings. Arum italicum pictum is in full glorious leaf in a
> garden that I maintain, and starting nicely in some donated plantings and
> in my new yard of my own (no one can tell me what to do with it or anything
> about the "strange" way in which I lanscape/maintain/compost). Bushy
> foot-tall clumps with tropical looking leaves look like bundles that belong
> in the produce section of the supermarket. Anyhow, the subject title of
> this communication is not about protecting the italicums from the elements,
> rather the protection they seem to be giving to other plants. I am in zone
> 6. With a hard freeze, we've had several nights already in the low 20F's
> with wind chills below 0F, they resemble more cooked produce, like someone
> dropped a pot of cooked spinach on the ground. But the leaves perk right up
> with warmer temps. So far they've stayed up most this winter, just slight
> drooping occasionally and right now are flattened under ice and snow. Most
> seeds were uncollected this year and also the clumps have widened,
> sprouting in October around a Cymbidium goerengii, Goodyera oblongifolia,
> and Pleiones planted at the base of a giant tulip poplar. These woodland
> semi-temperate orchids are borderline hardy in my area, with leaf tips not
> being heavily covered by dry oak leaves last year being burned off and
> pleione bulbs refusing to resprout in spring and the loss of the Cymbidium
> flower bud.
> This autumn I did not cover with extra leaves. The arums having spread grew
> all around and almost through this planting, sheilding the orchids from
> veiw, except directly overhead. The Pleiones of course are decidious, but I
> was worried about the choking of the evergreen Cymbidium and Goodyera, even
> stopping to consider removing some of this spread of italicum (I have more
> friends who want some) and disturbing the whole planting. But after one of
> these recent cold nights, I checked under the flopped over Arum leaves, and
> the other plants looked fine. The real clincher is that once again the
> goeringii has a flower bud, and its even bigger and fatter than last
> year's! I'll let them stay shielded until after the natural die-off of the
> italicum foilage next year in early summer and see how well they've
> adapted.
> Sometimes even Mother Nature sends you Christmas presents.
> Bonaventure Magrys
> 130 Hilltop Blvd.
> Cliffwood Beach, NJ 07735-6001
> USA  zone6