Looks like several of my more fancy hebes might have succumbed to the frost. It was -9 during he day time and my thermometer doesn't record the lowest so what it was during the night I can only guess. The rhododendrons have picked up though. My goodness they looked a sorry sight last week, leaves curled inwards and drooping the whole way down and covered in frost. I know it's their way of protecting themselves but when I see it I wonder if they can possibly recover.
Yesterday it was 12c here and 6c this morning so with luck the water butts will start to thaw out. Until the weekend that is.
I'm interested to see how our neighbours salvia amistad does. I took ours in as I always do and she normally takes a few cuttings and leaves hers out. Most years she has a real thick hedge of them all along our boundary and they look great. They were still looking good until the recent weather but now they are defoliated and look pretty dreadful, so it will be interesting to see if they come back and where from. Most of the places I've seen suggest they can only take a few degrees of frost but if they make it through this weather they could be a genuine perennial here.
On the plus side, there are lunaria seedlings (all of the types that I had last year, as far as I can tell) springing up all over, mostly at the first true leaves stage, so I should get a good show next spring. Forget-me-nots too. And the crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils are showing their noses above ground.
You give me hope JennyJ, because I stupidly forgot to sow honesty last summer. Just hope I didn't pull out all the plants too soon for the seed to have dropped.
We have become so used to mild winters, and planted foreign plants, that it's easy to forget what proper English winters should be like. We do need them to kill off the bugs. I certainly find the fruit trees produce more if it's been a cold winter. However, I appreciate that so many people have decked their gardens with plants that do well in warmer, drier climates, and don't want to lose them. Our agapanthus hates the cold and wet, but always comes back, year after year. Same applies to the lavender, salvia, and much more.
My osteospermums have turned to mush. Large leaved salvias not looking much better. I had a glorious 8 foot Tetrapanax with flower spike, all those huge leaves now blackened. Even my Fatsia looks to have lost most of its leaves, interestingly the xFatshedera has coped better. Surprisingly, Euphorbia stygiana appears untouched.
Our Salvia Royal Bumble looks as good as ever. The frost and minus temperatures don't seem to have affected it all, what a lovely sturdy plant it has proven to be. Long flowering season and hardy. However, our lobelia plant leaves have all turned to mush( have cut them back today) but new growth underneath seems to be doing fine. Shasta daisies doing well apart from some dead stems but the gaylardias are a terrible mess. Other than that, all have survived surprisingly well.
My salvia "Hotlips" was bent practically to the floor with the weight of the snow, and stayed like that for a week or so with temperatures down to at least minus 10 on some nights. As soon as the thaw began, it began to right itself and is back to around 3 feet high, albeit with some rather frosted tips. It is in a sheltered corner up against the house wall which clearly helped.
Some of the others salvias in more exposed positions are looking decidedly sick, l did trim some back a little as l didn't want to look out of the kitchen window at a load of dead stuff until at least the end of March. Planting opportunities methinks.
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The rhododendrons have picked up though. My goodness they looked a sorry sight last week, leaves curled inwards and drooping the whole way down and covered in frost. I know it's their way of protecting themselves but when I see it I wonder if they can possibly recover.
Yesterday it was 12c here and 6c this morning so with luck the water butts will start to thaw out. Until the weekend that is.
We do need them to kill off the bugs. I certainly find the fruit trees produce more if it's been a cold winter.
However, I appreciate that so many people have decked their gardens with plants that do well in warmer, drier climates, and don't want to lose them.
Our agapanthus hates the cold and wet, but always comes back, year after year. Same applies to the lavender, salvia, and much more.
Surprisingly, Euphorbia stygiana appears untouched.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
As soon as the thaw began, it began to right itself and is back to around 3 feet high, albeit with some rather frosted tips. It is in a sheltered corner up against the house wall which clearly helped.
Some of the others salvias in more exposed positions are looking decidedly sick, l did trim some back a little as l didn't want to look out of the kitchen window at a load of dead stuff until at least the end of March.
Planting opportunities methinks.