Did the cold front zap your flowers?

University of Cincinnati biologist Theresa Culley was a guest on the monthly gardening episode of WVXU's Cincinnati Edition, which examined early spring planting and nonnative, invasive species.

Culley, a professor in UC's College of Arts and Sciences, studies plant population biology and genetics. She also is an avid gardener. In her lab, she and her students study the impact of invasive species, the conservation of endangered species and other topics.

Host Lucy May asked Culley what people can do about wildly fluctuating temperatures. The past two weeks saw highs in the 70s and lows in the 20s.

“Plants can adapt readily to changes. But these are bigger swings than normal. In my yard the daffodils started blooming and the crocuses are up and now they're covered in snow,“ she said. “The question is what will happen next? We'll just have to see.“

Culley was joined on the show by horticultural agent Sarah Imbus with the University of Kentucky's Campbell County Extension; Peter Huttinger from Turner Farm Community Garden and Kymisha Montgomery from the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati.

Culley also fielded listener questions about invasive species such as lesser celandine, which has delicate yellow flowers and colonizes new areas quickly.

“It's really good at what it does — which is persisting. It's a beautiful plant like a buttercup. But it's really bad for the environment,“ she said. 

What makes lesser celandine so hard to eradicate, Culley said, is it produces many cloned baby plants that scatter into the soil. So removing the adult plants doesn't guarantee its eradication. 

“I had a patch show up at my house. It took me three years of repeatedly digging it up and putting it into a trash bag,“ she said.

Listen to WVXU's Cincinnati Edition.

Featured image at top: Spring is coming. Photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Marketing + Brand