RHS Winter Damage report 2022-23

LG_ · May 2023

Interesting to see how a huge range of plants have fared at the RHS sites.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/articles/winter-plant-survey

WAMS · May 2023

That's so interesting. I hadn't even realised till reading that that my potted daffodils didn't come back this year, only the ones in the ground.

I miss my hebe.

B3 · May 2023

I've lost a few plants that I liked but I also lost plants that I'd gone off and didn't have the heart to dump.

Obelixx · May 2023

I think one of the main factors is the dry heat last summer which was very stressful for plants.

Before moving here in Oct 2016 we gardened in Belgium, out in the countryside 30 miles south of Brussels so nothing between us and the Channel for strong, wet westerlies and nothing between us and the Urals for beasts from the east. We'd get 38C in summer bit it was humid and regularly down to -20C in Feb but dry with no snow for insulation.

I knew better than to try hebes, pittosporums and the like and learned, one shocking -32C night in2009, that evergreens such as viburnum and conifers will die of cold and that clematis montana will die if frozen to -15C just as flower and leaf buds are opening in March/April.

Roses, acers, other trees and shrubs and a whole host of perennials that hibernate coped well as did bulbs in the ground. Some shrubs had die back but recovered after pruning and wisteria and a whole host of clematis thrived - but not the alpinas and macropetalas. Even English lavender coped when planted with fierce drainage, but not the French.

Allotment Boy · May 2023

Obelixx said:

I think one of the main factors is the dry heat last summer which was very stressful for plants.

On top of that stress, in December we then had wet snow which partially thawed, and then froze hard and stayed frozen for several days. Snow normally insulates but not this time the ice clung to the tops of shrubs. You can see it in the pattern of damage on many plants.

JennyJ · May 2023

Interesting that their experiences and conclusions are pretty much what has been discussed on here over the last few months.

Jenny_Aster · May 2023

Feel sorry for my SiL, she's been cultivating 3 olive trees for about 20 years and shaped them into 3 perfect donuts. Sadly it looks like she's lost them.

Allotment Boy · May 2023

I hadn't read the report when I made my comment, honest!! They seem to be saying much the same thing though. Not surprising really, as that's what happened. There's always exceptions though, at home we have two pittisporum plants, one in a pot low down the N facing end the other in the ground S facing . The one in the ground has suffered damage but still alive, the one in the pot is fine, I would have expected it to be the other way around. At Capel Manor, where I volunteer, some Acer crowns are dead but lower branches are OK, lots of other damage as per RHS.

Obelixx · May 2023

There's odd @Allotment Boy. I have a row of several acers along the north facing wall of the ruin of the old farmhouse here. Last year a variegated form barely managed to open any leaves before July and then was feeble.

This year it's done fine but its neighbour, with dark red foliage has suffered and only produced foliage on its lower branches, making it look like a monk with a tonsure. I shall leave it another couple of weeks before pruning, just in case it has a late renaissance.

RHS Winter Damage report 2022-23

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