"someone" wrote in message
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"Radar" wrote in message
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"someone" wrote in message
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"Radar" wrote in message
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"Donn Thorson" wrote in message
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2009: Taken two weeks ago...These small flowers are growing at the
base
of an Oak tree at the Scotch Settlement Cemetery (est.1835)...just a
stones throw from my house.


Those are Scilla siberica, or Siberian Squill....although everyone I
know just calls them Scillas. They're probably my very favourite
early,
small bulb because they're one of the few that will actually survive
here and they will spread themselves nicely without any help. Glory of
the Snow (Chionodoxa) is another one that will usually survive here,
but
Crocus only survive a year or two if you can get them to grow at all,
and Snowdrops are probably even harder. The Tulips all do well, but
Narcissus/Daffodils are difficult too, except in really sheltered
areas.


I'm amazed by what you say. Chionodoxa, snowdrops, fritillaries,
tulips,
squills, narcissus and daffs all go down to at least 20F. I've never
lost
any of these through cold winters. My crocuses have been coming up each
year in the lawn for about 15 years with no problem, even through cold
winters.

Ah, have I misread you and the situation is not too cold but too warm?

someone

Nope, you haven't misread me, it's definitely the cold that's our
problem,
but "cold" is a relative term. I'm envious that you can grow daffs and
narcissus, and especially crocuses naturalized in the lawn. What I
neglected to mention in my previous post was that where I live, our
winter
temperatures can drop as low as -45 Celsius (-49 F) occasionally! A
winter that we don't drop below about -35 C is considered a 'warm'
winter...lol! So that's why only the very hardiest of the bulbs will
survive here. In fact, I think a lot of people find it amazing that
ANYthing survives here, bulbs or otherwise!


I give up, where are you? Not Antarctica, because only lichens grow
there.
So it must be Yukon, N.W.T. or Alaska. Or Russian Asia eastwards. Go
on,
gissa clue.

someone

You're getting close! I live south of N.W.T. in central Saskatchewan,
Canada at the southern edge of the Boreal Forest. Our winters are as cold
as they are because we're more or less in the centre of the continent far
away from any major bodies of water that would influence our climate, and
all that Arctic air comes right down the middle of the continent! We had a
long winter this year and our growing season is probably two or three weeks
behind 'normal'. My Scillas and Puschkinias are just starting to bloom now,
and tulips are just starting to come up. My forsythia's buds have just
started to show some yellow in the last couple of days, and it's usually in
full bloom by now. I've attached a photo of the forsythia close to full
bloom, before the end of April in 2006.

Regards,
Rick A