Hi - I've been ooooing over those of you who have lilies blooming already, mine are barely at the top of the water at this point, with about three pods each. But, here in 5a my first blooms are here - Marsh Marigolds - so pretty, and so hardy with their feet in water that is still between 45 and 50 degrees. Does anyone else have pics of bog/stream water perennials that are beginning to bloom? Would love to see them - Dax
The moss is also growing right now, although no blooms, of course. Not sure what the next few nights of below freezing weather will do, though. Since my pump is now on, and temps during the day will be above 32, I don't thing anything will freeze - Dax
http://fredrump.phanfare.com/album/243025/324448#imageID=14435115
shows an early flower of those calla types whose name escapes me at the moment. The Blue Pickerel are also blooming but in all cases these are new plants and not fully established yet.
Fred
Such a tease, with that fabulous moss growing :(
Wonderful slide show, fredrump - truly, you do have a paradise! And azreno, would I tease? Never entered my mind ------ :) - and especially now since we are looking at four + days with below freezing temps - Aargh! I took down the pump and UV lights and put the heater back in - the fish are back to hibernating - I'm glad I stopped feeding them when the forecast came in. Looks like an unpredicatble season! Dax
dax080 - I am in the same boat as you. Gonna lose every flower on the cherry and the magnolia tonight. I am going to leave my pump run and the UV's in but turned off. The heater/deicer I have - I left it in but unplugged - is 1500 watts and never lets the water go below 39 degrees. But I will probably be up a couple of times in the middle of the night through the next 5 nights making sure I have made the right decision. I stopped feeding two days ago. The water temp was 67 and they were hungry but I had to do a "mother knows best". Sigh.
I know, snapple, since I thought of you when I wrote the above message. You had said you still had your heater in, so I immediately knew what to do this morning. My heater isn't as strong as yours, so was afraid the water might start freezing in the skimmer, and was worried that the 5000 gph pump was going to REALLY take down the temp of the deep water. Remember when we talked about that earlier this year? In addition, since those UV's are brand new for the season, just couldn't risk damaging them -
Such a shame, will lose tulips, probably the violas I just planted, and that pretty marsh marigold will lose its blooms quickly. Not sure what the moss will do, but I assume the water lilys will just start over again when it warms up, and lose the leaves floating now. - Right? How about the iris and grasses - will they also start over? Not sure, since I'm such a newbie, and I really trust your advice - Dax
I hear ya about the UV's. Whew! I would protect them too. I' m going to keep a close watch. Having that waterfall running is a big water chiller and there is no guaranty that even a 1500 watter can keep up under those conditions. It could well be that I will be out in my jammies at 3 am pulling up the UV's. My DH gave me a remote pond temperature system that I can monitor the pond water temp from the house. It has an alarm feature too. But, I am not the smartest when it comes to figuring out the programming and since it is located at the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms I wouldn't hear it anyway. Except for the violas none of the plants you mentioned will suffer permanent damage. The violas may surprise you too. The tulips will probably pick their heads up when the temp gets above freezing and most likely bloom like nothing happened. Darn that Canadian cold air. Great folk though!
Thanks for the reassurance - and what a sweetie of a DH - so thoughtful, but I know what you mean about not trusting that "fool" technology - I'd be out there checking myself too - just can't trust our "babies" to technology that I've always seen break down! I'm set for now, but sure hope this doesn't last very long. Nice to know I may still have some blooms left for spring bulbs. I've got an open garden on May 5 for the DG Roundup and was hoping to have some color for folks - Dax
