Im in zone 5 we have had such a mild winter that none of my perennials even turned brown. Now the are in a full growth cycle because its been in the 70s and 80s for days now. its only march wow. All of my bulbs are either in bloom or starting to sprout. even most of my annulas for this zone didnt die. saved me some cash, haha. nature is wonderful
nothing died!
What a great report. Hard to believe it's just mid March!
I know! What a freakish winter!
My butterfly bush stayed semi-evergreen, and so did Going Bananas daylilies.
I have a carex that's supposed to be iffy in my zone. I kept it in a pot, which I know is more prone to cold damage than being in the ground, but it stayed beautiful all winter. Now it has a pink glow to it. I got lucky!
I keep forgetting the cold nights here. I go out each morning expecting at least another inch on plants that are starting.
It has been an exceptionally mild winter for us in the SE also, speaking of nothing died. Not even some of the subtropical that I've forgotten to move indoor last Fall. Like 'tropical elephant ears' some non-hardy verbena ect.
Some of my annual snaps made it through the winter! Pear trees, Serviceberry trees, Cherry trees, and Jane Magnolias have already bloomed. Now, we have Redbuds and Dogwoods in bloom. Many daffs are through. Tulips are blooming.
I have snaps that make it through the winter every year, I was zone 5 til this year, now they say I'm z6. Seems like they last for about 3 years. A friend I know has them reseed in her garden also. My favs are the dark red rockets at 36".
Kathy, lucky you! to have snaps return. They are one of my favorite plants. Once in a great while, I have a couple of snaps return-but 95% of the time, they are gonners. I have WS the Antihirrum bruan-blanquettii this year. It is suppose to be a perennial. I hope I can keep it going until it gets established in my garden.
I can get the snapdragon called Antihirrum 'Black Prince" to winter over. It's a burgundy snap--doesn't get real tall, however.
My favorites are the tall snapdragons also. They just look like big exclamation points in your garden--so graceful too.
We have the perennial short snaps. They come up in unexpected places. The Tall snaps are annuals here.
Most of ours return, both short and tall. It makes a lovely and colorful impact in spring.
Freezing here last night. Hard to tell how much damage yet--still cold weather to come.-------------------------------------------------------------------Weedy
Same here for the last two nights but no damage to the magnolia blossoms or spring bulbs.
Mags and azaleas are brown,Really sad looking.
This is one unusual winter, as if the cold season has shifted to different axis on Earth. I had a Saucer Mag. that got frost bitten for the first time in year due to wild fluctuation of temp. Our Pecan trees haven't budded out. But most everything else look like it's summer down here. Should we have a cold snap? Everthing will turn brown and sad looking for a time to be recovered.
Our magnolia survived two nights at 29 and 30 without turning brown/black and without any damage. I think the problems comes in when the sap is rising and buds are just forming and then we hit the freezing temperatures. It can kill some plants (including magnolias) as it did a few years ago during a freak freezing spell.
This message was edited Mar 28, 2012 10:29 AM
Another thing to note pir,l is that around 30*ish not much damage, but get down to low twenties and the high teens, now that's considered a hard freeze. That's why I've been asking for snow. I wanted the growth to be slowed down to normal..Here, where I am, last frost is s'pose to be mid May. I just know it's too early. Now that trees and shrubs are budding, I guess I better settle for rain. March is usually our snowiest month at almost 12", so far, only a trace of precipitation, thank goodness we had that big dump in Feb. I
Wow, Pirl, you must have some tough magnolias. Mine are wimps!
Temp hits 31.99 degrees and the flowers turn to drooping soggy brown mush.
Despite flowering so early this year,
my early magnolias sailed thru and are pretty much done now.
But I still fear a late hard frost; it was particularly heartbreaking on my japanese maples a few years ago - about ten fully grown trees were killed outright. I left their carcasses for an entire year hoping for a Lazarus phenomenon - didn't happen. I guess I'm not pious enough.
I planted the magnolia in honor of my mother. It was her favorite flowering tree but when a frost would hit and the blooms went black so did her mood for a week. Maybe my mom is taking care of it from heaven.
That late hard frost killed my daughter's huge magnolia a few years ago when many from Ohio to New York lost so many trees.
Like Lily in Al., all of my trees are green. Our Dogwoods are blooming and the Redbuds are finishing up. Our last freeze is April 10. I think we're going to make it w/o another killing freeze.
Spring has come so quickly with much force. I feel quite behind on getting all those spring chores finished. I have been cleaning up and tying my Clematis to trellises. They are so mature already, it's taking a lot of time to untangle the vines. If anyone has any quick and easy tips for this job, please share!
I still need to fertilize all of my ornamental trees, shrubs, and clematis vines. I also need to spray my roses. I do have them pruned, and they are full of leaves.
Then, there's all of the little seedlings that need to be potted up or set in the ground. I do believe EVERY seed germinated!! I still have some seeds to plant: black eyed susan vine, nasturtium, marigolds etc. and all of my vegetable garden seeds. We are enjoying our asparagus!
Have I made you tired? :)
WarriorwisdomKathy..love your tall red/burgundy snapdragons. Is that lavender beside it so lush and tall? Beautiful! Is lavender hard to grow; have never even bought a starter plant of it. My favorite color and I think I should have some. What variety do you recommend or what variety is yours?
Pipi....my lav is Munsted that I grew from seed a few years back. They seem to like my climate here. I'm in a semi arid region of the southwest. Yes, they grow wonderfully, there are several plants to the side out of the pix view. The two other blues in the pix behind are veronica spicata "Sightseeing Blue", they are all summer bloomers too. The only problem I've ever experienced with lav. is transplanting a full grown specimen, didn't take that's why I grew from seed, (cheaper than buying,lol).
pix 1: veronica spicata SSBlue at 28", spring-frost, (closeup)
pix:2: full grown V. s. SSblue, also shows the variation in color from the two plants, both from the same batch of seeds tho.
Maybe those who would like to grow lav. and can't might try the veronica, most on the market are 18" or shorter depending on the variety.
This message was edited Mar 31, 2012 12:34 PM
This message was edited Mar 31, 2012 12:37 PM
Pippi: There's small thread in the perennial forum named "Help with Lavenders" You may be interested in reading it.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1196729/
We opened the house on Friday... All through March in the city we had the most gorgeous spring/summer temps, even reaching the 70's a couple of times. I had been expecting that the snowdrops I put in last fall would be long gone by now, and the daffs would be blooming their heads off. But noooooooooo... There was one snowdrop bloom, one fat bud on a Rip van Winkle daffodil, and the rest were just beginning to push up above the soil. And then, on Saturday, it SNOWED!!!
Needless to say, the garden is about where it was last year as far as waking up goes. The forsythia is blooming, and the pieris, but that's it. Today the snow is gone, and I could see little bits of green here and there as the early bloomers start to come to life. Hopefully there's more going on next week.
Pam
My current favourite perennial seems to have gone to "plant heaven" this spring. I planted 3 persicaria "Golden Arrow" last summer. They provide an outstanding mix of beautiful foliage and flower. One appeared this warm spring but the new small emerging leaves turned quite brown with subsequent frosty weather and there has been *no* sign of life from the other 2 :(.
I love these (expensive) plants but I am now wary of trying again.
rouge: yes, quite pretty flower. Sorry it didn't make it. That's always discouraging. I notice Digging Dog nursery has one that is zone safe to zone 3. Persicaria affinis 'Dimity'.
http://www.diggingdog.com/pages2/persicaria.php