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by Lydia Holley December 26 , 2022
Winter officially arrived this year on December 21, the occasion marked by the winter solstice. A solstice happens twice a year—in summer and winter. In winter, it is the shortest day of the year. From the start of the winter solstice, days become longer. In summer, the reverse happens. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and afterward, days start to get shorter. In case you are wondering, spring and fall are marked with equinoxes.
In the past, many pagan rituals marked the arrival of the winter solstice. According to History,com, Romans observed the solstice with a week-long celebration of food, drink, and social disorder. Norsemen celebrated by burning a Yule log. Incas fasted for three days before sacrificing an animal.
Today, gardeners use the change of the seasons as a measure of which plants to grow when. Plants need both daylight and darkness. Interestingly, for many plants, it is the amount of darkness which determines when a plant will flower, not the number of daylight hours. If the plant requires a long period of darkness, it is called “short-day.”
Most likely, you have grown some of the more common “short-day” plants. Christmas cactus blooms when there is more dark than light during a 24-hour period. Many people put their Christmas cactus in a closet to stimulate a short day. Poinsettias are also short-day plants. Growers mimic a short day by turning off the lights in their greenhouses for a certain number of hours.
“Long-day” plants are the opposite. They need more daylight hours than hours of darkness. Many spring and summer flowering plants are long-day plants.
Of course, not all plants can be categorized as either long-day or short-day. There are some plants that will flower no matter the difference in light and darkness. These are called “day-neutral” plants.
If you grow onions, you may already know that onions are sold according to the number of daylight hours required for bulb development. Many gardeners in East Texas prefer short-day onions, planting the bulbs in late January to mid-February. Others prefer intermediate types planted in February to early March. Most long-day bulbs are grown farther north. By the way, no matter which type of onion you grow, keep an eye on the leaves. Onions need a certain number of leaves for the bulb to develop properly. The more leaves, the more layers in an onion.
These days, most people do not celebrate the winter solstice in any way. Many may not even know when the solstice occurs. But the plants do.
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