Winners and Losers

Can a plant be a winner and a loser?

How about this: Xanthoceras sorbifolia
The day after, I wasn't sure if it would recover unscathed or not.

But by the third day, it was evident: foliage was toast, but flower buds unaffected!

And the Winners...

Aruncus aethusifolius. The foliage seemed so tender, I thought sure it would be a gonner, but no.

And same with Thermopsis fabacea

I mulch my lily beds way after the ground freezes to hold in the cold.  But this winter was so ridiculously warm, the ground froze but never really got that cold.  I mulched three weeks later than I ever have before - right after Christmas.  Still, some lilies were sprouting through the mulch already, which meant a lot more on the way.  Just three days before the freeze (and still very warm), I had the time and decided I needed to uncover and prevent over etiolation of the stems.  Mulch would remain nearby to recover before the coming hard freeze.  Well I missed a few, but even for these very succulent, blanched, and brittle exposed stems, all was okay.

Clematis ochroleuca completely unaffected.  Clematis recta, although very advance in growth and seemingly devastated, recovered fully.

Phyteuma scheuzeri showed a tell-tale change in color (shown), but also seems to have recovered.

And here are some new seedlings, except for the Cardiocrinum, all started indoors, and had I known it would get so cold, never would I have left them out.  What a sigh of relief!
Cardiocrinum cathayanum
Sisyrhincium macrocarpon
Physaria didymocarpa
Oxytropis campestris

Interesting study, Rick.  I'm also struck by how very green the foliage looks on your Physaria didymocarpa, compared to how they appear here (in the wild (first photo) and in the garden (second photo))?
 

At the time I was jealous of the heat the rest of eastern and central North America experienced, but nowI'm just as glad we missed it.  Slow and steady wins the race around my area.  It has been consistently mild 10-12 C for the last week and plants are putting on slow but steady growth.  They are forecasting the temp to drop to -6 mid mext week but I hope they are wrong.  Either way, my plants will not nearly be as advanced as yours Rick.

Slow and steady here too, Todd. With the emphasis on slow!

Well Lori, maybe I should qualify those seedling identies:
except for the Cardiocrinum, they are all from the NARGS seed ex, so...

Who else has winners and losers?

Sorry about the losers- hope none are total losses!
While I'm sure it can and probably has happened here, I think its not common for that sort of dangerous early start to growth- I guess our deeply frozen and slow to thaw/warm soil is one factor: I planted some crocus and galanthus last fall, and even a couple of spots that have been bare for a couple of weeks or more are showing no emerging growth yet-- unless maybe they never will  :rolleyes:... the second factor probably being our cold nights- even when we were having many days to 10C or more, we had nights well below freezing, no doubt also preventing any premature growth.. I just noticed today finally a hint of action (and I mean hint) on a Saussurea and Potentilla nitida.. before that it was only Semps and weeds...lol

I know exactly what you mean, Cohan.  I have always asserted that the deep frost in the ground keeps spring bulbs from emerging early, and when they finally do it is so warm out that their bloom season is relatively short compared to warmer climes.  With our unseasonable warm winter, I was expecting a nice long show of galanthus, but I guess our simultaneous drought condition that still persist actually produced a very poor bloom.  :(

No drought here- mostly soggy! Good for the wildflowers though :)

RickR wrote:

Who else has winners and losers?

Me!
All woody species have survived - only the flowers are damaged on the Rhododendrons - and the trees have not leafed out yet so they're fine but several perennials have fared worse.
In addition to the cold nights in the Easter week we have had hailstorms and strong wind so it isn't always easy to say whether it is the cold nights, the wind or the hail or all taken together that has damaged the plants.

Here are two examples, Saxifraga fortuneii and Bergenia ciliata. The plants are not killed though, you can see new growth. All other Saxes and Bergenias are unscathed though.

Some other plants have got their leaves burnt but are recovering. However lilies and small bulbs are OK except one broken lily stem.

And Cohan, it is very soggy here too!

Another "loser" in the 20-21F temp:

Hacquetia epipactis flower bracts were touched; they are not supposed to be white, and never have been before this.

At least they still look strong, so no real setback, just a temporary cosmetic issue ..

Rick, did your Magnolia sieboldii recover from the leaf bud blast?  I have two young trees of a Korean form, and at first I thought both were okay after the deep freeze,  but on one of the two trees, all leaf buds slowly shriveled up and no sign or re-leafing out, it looks dead.  The other tree just 3' away, wasn't bothered a bit by the freeze; natural selection?

View of my young trees from last year:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=274.msg12850#msg12850

McDonough wrote:

Rick, did your Magnolia sieboldii recover from the leaf bud blast? 

I just went out and looked.  We have only had a couple days since then has made it to the low 60's F, but I can already see nice fresh green leaves beginning on practically every bud.  I'll get no late spring flush of flowers this year, but hopefully I'll get some summer blooms.

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.

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.

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

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....

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  ;D) 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...  ;)  )

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 :D

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