I thought I had lost hotlips, but then last week, some tiny shoots. This week, plenty of leaf. I may have lost a couple of Dahlia Labyrinth, which is a pity because the colour was going to be ideal for the September wedding I am helping provide flowers for. I also found a couple of Salvia patens that I dug up while weeding. They had shoots which were being grazed off, so I potted them and they are now growing.
Has anyone else noticed that their plants have grown back after the winter with extra vigour? I grow mostly hardy stuff but the garden was looking battered after the deep snow retreated and thought we'd lost quite a few plants. Now even the stuff we thought was dead has come back twice as lush as it has in the last few years. Maybe the cold had the same effect as a hard prune.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Yes! I lost some plants but many of the survivors are doing exceptionally well, particularly flowering shrubs. Down here we often get a very mild winter and then right at the end a freeze and bitter winds off the sea. Early leaf growth and flower buds are blasted. The cold weather this year held them back so they are late but really vigorous and healthy.
I lost 7 Apple trees (maybe one or two will survive), one cherry, one cotoneaster hedge, one Holly hedge, one laurel hedge and 4 phormium in pots. Some of the evergreens have some tiny buds at the bottom, but they are decimated really. I’m particularly annoyed about the Holly as I bought largish female plants and I think they were £15 each. Damn!
It's been a strange winter for me - things that I thought wouldn't survive as I had lost them in the past, were my new last year penstemons and salvias. Both sailed through. Other things which I gave no thought to like the heleniums which I planted last year, are a goner. Even Geranium Rozanne looks as though it is on the way out. A mixed bag for me. And of course my 20+ year old clematis Marjorie is a goner as well. No rhyme nor reason to losses or survivors.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
Yes wild edges, the heavy snowfall seemed to rejuvenate everything, my Verbena Bonariensis, that I had chopped right back, is now over 2m tall, out of control! Everything started to grow like crazy post-snow. My problem is losing things to dry summers, not hard winters so I have the opposite problem to most.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I lost dozens of young zantedeschia aeothipica , dozens of young penstomen and dozens of miscanthus nepalensis. All in 9cm pots in trays beside the polytunnel. Gunneras are coming, but very slowly, apart from the plant actually in the lake, which is wonderful despite being encased in solid ice. I've lost a Canary island date palm too. ( more bother than it was worth to be honest ) As Posy says, I've noticed this year our rowans are flowering better than ever, ditto hawthorn around here.
All my agapanthus come inside for the winter, I haven’t lost anything. plants in pots will freeze solid, so best brought inside, what was in the garden had piles of mulch over and all survived. Dahlias are good, Salvias and Veronica’s, although slow have taken off now, everything is much bigger than last year so I think the cold spell must have done them good.
All penstemon cuttings now planted out and grown big. I thought as there was 4” of ice on the pond that some things may have died, but it’s all still there.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Thanks to everyone for their comments, I am sorry for anyone who lost precious plants, but take some comfort that I am not the only one. I agree with @hogweed in some cases no real rhyme or reason. The viburnums have been brilliant, the irises have never been better, apart from the one that died all the Acers have grown like crazy this year.
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Gunneras are coming, but very slowly, apart from the plant actually in the lake, which is wonderful despite being encased in solid ice.
I've lost a Canary island date palm too. ( more bother than it was worth to be honest )
As Posy says, I've noticed this year our rowans are flowering better than ever, ditto hawthorn around here.
plants in pots will freeze solid, so best brought inside, what was in the garden had piles of mulch over and all survived. Dahlias are good, Salvias and Veronica’s, although slow have taken off now, everything is much bigger than last year so I think the cold spell must have done them good.
All penstemon cuttings now planted out and grown big. I thought as there was 4” of ice on the pond that some things may have died, but it’s all still there.