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  Re: Dracunculus
From: Ellen Hornig <hornig at Oswego.EDU> on 1998.10.15 at 21:13:46(2695)
On Thu, 15 Oct 1998, Mike Bordelon wrote:

> Hi Everybody,
>
> I have 1 year old seedlings of Dracunculus canariensis. Can someone tell
> me if this plant goes dormant. I was waiting for them to go dormant
> before I pull them out of the pan they are currently growing in. If they
> don't go dormant, I will transplant them now.
>
Mike - since mature tubers of this species are just starting active growth
now (i.e. spikes are pushing up above ground) I'd assume your seedlings
managed to grow right through dormancy, and that you should try to keep
them going now. My more mature tubers are dormant throughout the summer.

An interesting aside: because these get so big (and are horribly
attractive to spider mites) I keep mine in the cyclamen house over the
winter, where a bottom heating system is designed to keep soil temps from
falling below 40F or so. It's undoubtedly cooler than the species likes,
but they survive; the foliage gets frozen from time to time, but sort of
recovers. I think of them as "canaries"; a glance in the door, in
midwinter, at the D. canariensis tells me whether the nighttime temp has
managed to go below freezing. If it has, they look awful - but do
recover, sort of.

Ellen Hornig

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