My temperature got to about 28F for an hour this morning. Seven hours later the sunflowers are looking a little sick.

If you want to see some real agriculture festivities, get to the Common Ground Fair, put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. It happens at a beautiful organic farm in Unity Maine every fall - this year it's Sept 21 thru 23. Nationally known speakers,world-class organic produce and livestock, and lots of alternative lifestyle and sustainability info. Not a few hippies to gawk at, either. Here is a link that might be useful: MOFGA calendar

For tropical species, I believe a plant actively pumping juice is much more tolerant of brief cold + wet in the fall than in the spring. Several nights of cold should not have much if any impact especially if it warms up during the day. Chilly fall evenings do not worry me. 3 chilly days in a row with rain would worry me. Winter growers are generally much more tolerant of cool wet conditions and some will even thrive. I know I've said this before, but the best way to figure out what your plants can handle is to experiment with sacrificial specimens. Get some cuttings to root during the summer, and leave them out in the cold and rain and see how they fare. There is another way to end the shuffle without moving to California or South Africa. Just accept the fact that tropical and subtropical species will not grow as quickly and not gain as much biomass than they would somewhere else. And more importantly, come to the realization that this is not a bad thing - an extended dormancy does not have to negatively impact the health and vitality of the plant. Just bring them inside when the time is right, and leave them there. If that happens to be next week, then call it a day and let them sleep. How much would you really gain with a few more days of warm sun anyway? Maybe pick a handful of your favorites and shuffle them while leaving the rest inside. Don't drive yourself nutty. x

Dawn, I don't know, but I think there are a lot of blooming bushes in that yard. They were still wrapped when I went to church this morning. I think they had to be ornamental since they were bushy and too small to be fruit trees. We haven't had as much warmth as you have had and my cannas have not come up yet. I have chamomile, daisy, and hollyhocks that are up, and had a couple of banana plants that had started to grow. The bananas have a little brown around them today. They are in a very protected area and may be getting a little heat from the walls of the house. The comfrey is in an open part of the garden, but it looks fine. I threw a box over the rosemary the last couple of nights because it looked like it had new growth. Lisa gave me a new echinacea plant last year and I was a little worried about it, but it was just barely above ground and appeared to be alright. I put a box over it tonight just in case we go even lower tonight. Our forecast for tonight is 29 again. My sage had started to get new leaves, and 2 types of oregano were up and all look OK. I have one little lavender plant that had a few new leaves, but already looked poor before the cold weather hit, so it may have trouble with the added cold. If so, it will not be my first fail with lavender. I am lavender challenged. The Mesonet shows that we have had 8 hours below freezing in the last week, but our low temp was 28. We have another low forecast for Thursday night, so it is still winter. I still have the 7 tomato plants that I bought for early planting and haven't been brave enough to put them in the ground yet. I just hope tomorrow is nice enough to work outside because I really need to pot-up my tomato plants that I grew from seed. They still fit on the light shelf, but those 7 that I bought don't fit there and are large enough to be planted. My grandson wanted to know how I got 7 plants out of a 6 pack. HaHa One of them just happened to have two in it and it separated easily. Old 'gonefishin' trick.