Linda, Jeff, Bert, and Holly are taking a break. We shall return full-force January 4th. Note that there MAY be sporadic, interim postings if one of us gets significantly riled up. Subscribers to our RSS feed will be duly alerted.
My “greeting card” below was inspired by Jeff’s post on the insulating powers of snow. We here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virgina have about 14″ of insulation at the moment!
Finally, thank you to all our wonderful Garden Professors readers and commenters – you made our first six months so fun and rewarding!
Have a great Christmas break! I only recently found you and was bemoaning that I couldn’t get your blog to pull up in Google Reader. Anyway, I scrolled down and see that you’ve figured it out and now I can subscribe to your blog!
Welcome, Mr. Brown Thumb! Glad you found us. Visit often – and happy holidays!
Enjoy your break, Professors! This site is such a welcome sight in my Google Reader, and I’ll miss it while you’re on hiatus, but you all deserve a vacation. Happy Holidays!
Oh, Deb, I’m not sure we can keep quiet that long! After the hectic pre-Christmas rush is over, I’m sure one or more of us might post something. Happy holidays and our thanks to you and other readers!
The image brings up a rather basic question I’ve always had: How does snow act as an insulator for plants?
I can kind of understand it for burrowing mammals. It gets them out of the wind and their body heat can warm up the ambient air. beneath the snow in their burrow. However, with plants it would seem that they would just be covered by sub-freezing snow, thereby keeping them perpetually below the freezing point.
What am I missing?
Micah, what it does is prevent wind-induced freeze damage just like with animals (the dread “wind chill factor”). Snow cover reduces water evaporation from the leaves, which is actually what causes most of the low temperature damage in plants. Being somewhat below freezing doesn’t hurt hardy plants (they have a number of resistance mechanisms, both chemical and physical). But if they lose too much water, then you have problems.
May I pass on a belated thank you to all the garden professors for what has been six months of very enjoying reading on the best horticultural blog on the internet. I wish you all the best successes in the new year! I was away traveling over x-mas period and got withdrawals from not being able to read the blog! And the ‘snow as mulch’ idea is very surprising to me – we don’t get much snow in Australia!
But, like everything on this blog, it makes utter sense once one of the professors have explained it. That’s why this blog is brilliant. Thanks again!
I just discovered the Garden Professors site (better late than never), what a great idea! Apropos of nothing in particular, I have a question for you derived from some observations in my rose garden. I have noted that the stems of my most cold-hardy roses are generally “redder” than the stems of my more delicate selections, and that stem redness seems to be regulated by temperature (i.e. the colder it gets, the more red the stems become). Can I assume this change in color is the result of increased anthrocyanin in the stems? If so, is the link regulation of light intensity and photosynthesis? Or does having red stems assist in winter hardiness in some other way? I’d love some insight into this.
thanks
David
Thanks, Jimbo and David, for your nice comments! We’re so glad you’ve found your way to us. David, I think my post this week (Wednesday) will be on your topic of redness. You probably don’t know it, but I’ve published a bit on anthocyanins and gave a talk called “Better Red Than Dead.” More on that in a few days!