Gmshack - I have read of using both plastic and Agribon, but haven't gotten around to the plastic part yet. There are two main issues with overwintering and some studies suggest that dehydration is a bigger problem than cold tolerance in cold climates. I used drew 51's technique of Wilt Stop this fall, so we will see if it prevented desiccation. I also used two layers of Agribon. I find that one layer does not provide the protection that the company claims. I start covering mine around late August when our first frost hit. This is both to protect berries and reduce temperature shock from early season frosts. In the spring, I am leaving the Agribon on for a few weeks. This next spring I will leave it on until each variety begins to flower. This substantially increases growth for me (in our very cool Mays) and hastens flowering by a few weeks. I do remove it on days with temps over 70F. Desiccation is a real problem for me since our ground is frozen solid for at least 6 months out of the year. Add to this that preliminary probing this last summer suggested that blackberry roots up here only extend 3 or 4 inches into the ground (it is too cold below that, with an average annual temperature at 3 ft of around 31F). In this situation I believe that the roots cannot take up water to replace what the canes transpire during the winter and they end up desiccating and dying way back (from 8-10 ft long to about 2 ft). We will see. As far as the weed block, it will probably not increase the soil temperature as much as removing it. I'm not sure of this as I don't have experience with it in the Lower 48. Up here, it must be removed in the spring for about 4 weeks to allow the soil to thaw and then reapplied. Your soil is already thawed and substantially warmer, so you shouldn't have to do this. What I think I get from weed block is increased heat above it = though I have no data to show that. I just know that of two Wild Treasure plants I have (that are one year different in age), the one grown over weed block is much more vigorous than the other. I trellised the very vigorous one last year and it continued to grow strong even though most of the canes were not directly lying on the weed block. A study at Oregon State Univ. also supports this. However, Wild Treasure is a crown-forming variety, not a spreading variety like the ones you have, so covering around it with weed block is a simple process. I do not grow primocane blackberries because the season is too short and there is insufficient heat. Everyone of them has died completely. I have one Triple Crown left and a very wimpy (it grew 2 whole inches this year) Chester. Neither has canes that survive - but then I have not covered them. I am guessing that if your TC canes survive and leaf out, but don't flower, that the flower buds are damaged by the cold. Flower buds on many plants are much less tolerant of cold than non-flowering buds. I have two varieties of erect blackberries that I am trialing that might be of interest to you. They are Nelson and Stenulson. Stenulson has been in the ground for several years, but moose have browsed it down each year and voles girdled anything that was left. Thus, I don't have an idea of its ripening season, but it is likely too late for me. It grows pretty well here and is spreading (unlike TC and Chester which only get smaller each year). I have had a few green canes survive the winter and start to leaf out and then die because they were girdled by voles at the base, so it is pretty hardy (though these were covered by snow mid-winter, when air temps dropped as low as -35F). I just got Nelson last year and it actually flowered earlier than any other erect I have. Its berries are somewhat frost tolerant, as well, to at least 28F. It still did not ripen early enough, but it was in a pot and not established. The timing could change in the future, especially if I put an Agribon "sack" over it early in the season. Both of these are thorny. I got Balsor's Hardy Black from the USDA germ plasm repository this fall, but it failed to root before it rotted. This is another possibility, but it is not commercially available in the US. Happy New Year!

I remember when I was first gardening I tried the chicken mesh thing - laid it down in the fall after planting. Don’t know what I was thinking but by next spring I wanted to remove it after the shoots had already started pushing through and I ended up pulling out a good deal of my precious while doing so. So not really good for my purposes. The other thing is that the mesh may stop them being able to dig down to the bulb - but doesn’t stop the buggers from snapping the neck of the flower just as it about to open.

My husband told me they will just keep coming in. So it sounds like you have proved that lol. Ugh. We tried catching 2 of them with no luck yet. But only tried it during the day and they have not seemed to be in the hole they are using at the time. My husband was worried about the heat as well so I too am going to hold off now until it cools down a tad. But I am determined to get them! I want to catch them before they reproduce. He was also wondering if for some reason they were why we have not seen the ground squirrels for awhile. Well he saw them today. Each time with a load of dead grass in their mouths heading for their tunnel. I told them I think it may be baby making season for them too. I at least have my holes in the beds filled in.... Maybe I need to try a sonic mole chaser device again. I used that in the past for moles in my garden beds and had pretty good luck with it. I have to look up and see if it works on the chipmunks as well.

"regular" versus hybrid....therein lies the confusion :-) LOL!! I have found crocus taxonomy to be rather confused. IME, most are sold as species crocus while in fact many are hybrids or sometimes subspecies. But generally not very complex hybrids. Lots of times these are lumped together and sold as 'botanical' crocus or 'botanical collections' (a mix of both species and hybrid crocus). To my knowledge the only species squirrels will avoid are tommasinianas, aka tommies. These contain an unpleasant alkaloid that squirrels don't like. But no guarantees that they will leave alone!! Both the Ruby Giant and Barr's Purple are tommies. 'Romance' is a chrysanthus cultivar. To my knowledge squirrels do not eat anemone blanda tubers. But that does not mean they will leave them alone :-) Squirrels seem to be overly attracted to freshly dug or disturbed soil, especially in fall, and will dig and root around in it, often burying their own treasures for future use. So they will often dislodge or dig up newly planted bulbs and corms or tubers even if they don't actually eat them.