Winners and Losers

[Spiegel]

Magnolia soulangeana lost all the flowers, which had been forced by the early warmth.  Since this happens here 1 year out of 4 because the magnolia insists on budding too early, it wasn't too terrible.  The real damage has been to some old cushions and buns.  The oldest ones seemed to suffer the most.  Minuartias were a big casualty.  They look terrible but I'm hoping they will recover eventually as the season progresses.  Astragalus loanus, my treasure, answered the clarion call of early warmth and started into growth.  The following drops in temperature plus rain killed all the new growth and probably the plant.

[Lori S.]

It was an amazingly hard winter for my garden... which is very odd since other people have remarked on how relatively mild it was, with better-than-average snow cover, etc..  Either my expectations of timing are totally off (still too early?), or I have lost many plants - very odd, as I don't usually lose plants (exceptions being totally whacko things I try that didn't stand a realistic chance anyway).  Very depressing, particularly as this is the year that DH has finally consented to a tour by the local rock garden club.... crap.

[RickR]

But Lori, everyone will marvel at your tufa bed, even if it is unplanted!

[cohan]

Sorry to hear, Lori- hopefully you will get some late emergences.. My garden (apart from stuff planted years ago by mom and aunt) is too new for me to really know when things should be emerging/blooming nor what I can reasonably expect to survive.. Overall though, after ups and downs through winter and spring, I think we weren't/aren't far off average/normal (one month warm, next month cold, one month dry, next month wet, etc). Native plants have been just  a little early- a couple weeks earlier than the last couple of years, but maybe those were late springs! At this point we aren't particularly dry or wet, and alternating above and below 'normal' temps..

I did lose a few cacti seedlings out for the winter in sunk pots for the first time-some species no survival, others perfect survival, and others inbetween,  but some of these I expect to be marginal, and I only in fall moved them to a warm/dry micro-climate in the yard. Important going forward (for the more delicate spp) will be making sure they have the hottest summer possible, to make them strong enough to withstand winter, and I may need to think about moisture protection in fall and/or spring....

[Lori S.]

Okay, I'm over the mugwumping now - thank you for the sympathy!  I had the garden tour, everyone was extremely nice, and seemed to agree that it was a rotten winter (or at least said that anyway  ) and all was well!   Unfortunately, there's very little in bloom in the rock garden but a few nice spring things livened it up.  (It's kind of an intermission between acts here... the little spring bulbs are done but it's still early for the perennials and much of the rock garden.)  Anyway, it was very nice to have people from the club over and a good experience!   

(I suspect I'll still be buying a load of plants next weekend to fill things in but so far, so good...    )

[Hoy]

Sorry to hear you lost much Lori

Here much have recovered. However, we were at our mountain cabin this weekend and I had hoped to see several flowering Pulsatilla vernalis but a lot of the buds were damaged by frost and those that weren't were eaten by hares I found only brown mush and some newly cut flower stalks. . . .

On the up side were a lot of flowering Anemone nemorosa which I have planted. They don't naturally grow there

[RickR]

Another Loser from the cold snap that orginally started this thread:
     Thujopsis dolbrata var. hondai.  Every single growing point tip died.