Herb Garden Kansas Corner
Greetings from northern Illinois where it is a sunny 3 degrees. Jem is curled up in his warm spot. I have to shoo and push Princess and Eugene out the pet door. Every day Mike is emailing me really good home deals in Florida. It is hard to make myself leave the house; the decision to swim yesterday was inspired, today is much colder. Wrapping myself in a snuggie at the back of my cave and waiting for more spring like weather is tempting.
My sister is booking a flight to work in Florida next week. Jealous thoughts are flickering through my mind. Why don’t I have clients in Fort Lauderdale? Do I need to refocus my marketing efforts? Are four seasons really necessary? What were we thinking?
Take a deep breath. If everyone rushed off to the Gulf States or the southwest part of the country or southern California the country would tilt and Wisconsin would slide into Illinois and Green Bay would smack into Chicago and Packer and Bear fans would have to find other outlets for their aggressions.
Winter wheat needs cold and snow for the germination to grow a crop in the spring. Even spring wheat does not tolerate heat very well. Winter dormancy* is necessary to most woody perennial plants. It seems these plants cannot continue their life cycle if they do not have this endodormancy period. “The endodormant plant tracks the amount of time above 0 C and below 10 C and does not respond or grow in warm spells until their necessary counted cold time is met. Species adapt to latitude by having different number of ‘chill hours’ that must pass before they can break dormancy.”**
Interesting new information for my brain files. Apparently, some plants need to “chill” before they can complete their life cycle. I am thinking some humans might take a leaf off of the branches of those trees and shrubs. Okay. Okay. There are reasons for some dormancy. After all, I like trees and shrubs. And I am not sure palm trees provide a lot of shade in sunny warm weather. Maybe the cold is necessary for us to appreciate the warmth of spring, summer and fall.
And maybe the memory of the cold is all a snowbird needs to appreciate the warm………….
*Dormancy: A period in which a plant does not grow, awaiting necessary environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, nutrient availability. Dormancy is a state of quiet inaction, quiet and inactive restfulness. When organisms are in unfavorable conditions and slow down their metabolic processes to a minimum to retain resources until conditions are more favorable.
**http://howplantswork.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/how-do-plants-chill-out/
©2011 Susan Kendall. All rights reserved
