What are your losses from the past winter?

I am resting from taking out the remains of a huge California lilac that I finally decided was lost over the winter. Funny thing, it showed some signs of life early this spring, but still went away. Interesting, though, I found that one branch had layered. I had been watching for that for a couple of years but this is the first sign.

Imagine some of you are now resigning yourself to losses about now, too. Hope we can learn from our experiences and you will share yours here.

Another loss was of all of my rock roses, even the ones close to the foundation of the house. RJ also lost hers, a surprise as she thinks they had been in for about eight years.

Many of my roses were significantly damaged, but it does appear most of them will recover over time.

I too, lost many cistus - several 'crimson spot'. All were planted with excellent drainage in full sun, but they could not beat the freeze-thaw cycle that hit here 3-4 different times. Also lost a very large (8'+) Lavatera, about a dozen Salvias, several Phormiums, several borderline penstemons, 1/2 dozen roses, a melianthus (which would have been a surprise had it lived!) & then there's the Lilies disappearing via the Voles.
I did check out plants that did not make it - from trunk to roots. My conclusion: no insulatory blanket from snow, because we don't get a build-up for a long enough period of time. Thus - freeze-thaw cycle which splits the plant open. Sad.
I have lived here for 23 years - reliably zone 7. Now I select plants hardy to Z6. All roses have been planted 3-4" above the graft, and anything I treasure that is borderline will either come inside or stay at the Nursery.
Sharon - did you have any white Cistus? Those are the only ones that survived for me.
My Halimiocistus sahoucii lived - I don't understand that one.....

My Cistus made it through, much to my surprise, but my Phormium (which was new) did not, and neither did 2 types of Hebe. A couple other Hebes were fine, so I think some varieties are hardier than others. All my Rosemary bit the dust as well. I also have several lilies and small apple trees that are being destroyed by voles. Some of my shrubs suffered major branch breakage from the snow load. I should have thought to go knock more off of them, but I was preoccupied by my dog who was quite sick at the time. The evergreen shrubs had the hardest time of it since snow built up on their leaves.

I lost another 7-8 roses this season. I have determined that the grafted roses do not do well here. Own root roses seem to do very well.

My corkscrew willow came down with the last heavy snow also.
Had some large dracena in pots that had survived for several years. now gone too. Think I lost one maidenhair fern, but haven't quite given up hope yet.

I lost my Ceanothus, 2 Mexican Orange, Hot Lips Salvia, Black & Blue Salvia, several Euphorbias, Tasmanian Tiger Euphorbia, 3 Escallonias, Agapanthus, 2 Phormiums, 2 lavendars, several dahlias, a Windmill palm, 4 Rosemarys, and several things that I cannot recall at the moment. Oh yes, my huge beautiful verbena didn't make it.
I killed my new Gunnera somehow, I accidentally lopped off my new Tetrapanix to a stub, my new Eucalyptus tree might be dead,and something else that I bought from Heidi never did grow. My new Hawaiian Ginger bulb never did anything either, maybe I planted it upside down? On the upside, some things that I thought were dead are showing some signs of life! And I did take cuttings of Hot Lips before she went to plant heaven.

Hi all,

R.I.P: Two Rudolph Euphorbias, 3 baby New Zealand flaxes, and a gigantic 8 year old Rosemary....... A Mexican Orange nearly bit the dust too, but has recovered since...

Kur..that reminds me 1/2 of my 3 year old rosemary is dead and 1/2 of a purple wall flower. I think it was the freeze in Dec. Wierd how only 1/2 of each plant is dead. They will have to be dug out at the end of the season. I was lucky as the dead part was facing the fence of each plant. Enjoying the
living part for now!

oh yes, the very large Rosemary. At least the dead branches smelled nice when i crushed them to add to the compost...

Ah, yes, I lost all of my purple wallflower, and today discovered the rose of Sharon I have had for over 10 years is probably also history.

Lost-well, my patience for waiting on a few things. I think my digging them up to see if they were still alive was the death blow....bad Sue!

Lost: 1/2 of my medium-large Rosemary, 1 tricolor Hebe , but it's known to not be very hardy, so not a shocker, salvia Black & Blue, salvia greggii, several other salvias, some pennisetum little bunnies-lost to my patience waiting for them to recover, a pot of pink muhly grass that I hadn't gotten around to planting, a scutellaria violet cloud, one white agapanthus that I didn't cover, possibly my passiflora-died to the ground and still no new growth, a cordyline or dracaena (no tag) that survived two other winters, maybe a dahlia, but I'm still hoping on it, and a new Kalypso euphorbia.

Damaged: two other Hebes-if I hadn't covered them, they'd be toast now, my Ceanothus vandenberg, a small phormium, two Azara Microphylla that survived in 1-gallon pots but are just now starting to get new leaves, one of my bamboo culms snapped in half with ice-when I went out trying to get the ice off they sounded like wind chimes, Nandina Plum Passion is finally looking decent again, phygelius has recovered pretty well and bloomed on time. I may cut it to the ground every year-it's behaving itself much better so far this year.

And of course, some lilies to vole damage, plus the Lotus Crassifolius Otayensis (sob) due to repeated breakages and catnaps (errr)

One bright spot, though. I've got to say that I was darned impressed with my Helena's Blush Euphorbia. It was a new 4" last FALL and it took the weather like a champ and turned the most totally awesome color besides-this is in Feb, not a great shot but the color is about right. It's supposed to be hardy to z6 and judging by how it handled itself, I'd say it qualifies...

Nice Euphorbia, Sue. The Muhly grasses I have in the ground died, too. I think it's just too wet for them here. Onward to Eragrostis...
I had forgotten about my Passiflora - I guess it died or I would have noticed it by now! I think I am at a choke point with enough plants. No worries, though. All currently held opinions of mine regarding what exactly too many is, will be dispelled as you guys are great enablers & come up with the most well-thought out reasons for plant acquisition. LOL - gotta love you all!

I was waiting to be sure before posting to this thread. I've lost 4 nicely established hebes. Makes me want to sob hysterically because they were such glorious shrubs. Several other sustained considerable damage but are slowly making a comeback. I wait patiently. 3 lavenders. Sigh. These have left ugly holes in the front border. Oh well. Many, many daffodils. Bulb flies, not cold weather. Hateful creatures. About 1/2 of my Lotus crassifolius otayensis. They were covered all winter, but I guess I'm lucky 1 or 2 survived. A young Empress tree, but I see it sprouting from the roots so I'm giving it another year. They are fast growers. It was not well established. The Mexican oranges took a bad hit and looked hideous for months, but they are bouncing back nicely. Three well established New Zealand flaxes. That hurt. They are coming back from the roots, but they will take a long time. I've kept them in the ground and then put new ones in front of them.
Let's not discuss the vole issue. They are evil incarnate. I've rescued as many lilies as my back will tolerate. On to the hostas.

What survived: almost all of my dahlias, which I did not bother to dig!! It is simply hard to understand how they made it, but they are big and ready to bloom. Plus, I bought more because I consider them annuals. Now I have PLENTY of dahlias!

I forgot to mention my evergreen clematis. That was really sad as it was climbing a cedar and had reached at least 30 feet.

That's a shame. I had no idea they were tender. They seem like they can withstand anything.

Hardy to Z7 - they DO NOT like wind.

Mine climbs up into the birch tree. I don't know what I'll do when that tree finally bites the dust. It's not really long for this world as it has been damaged many times by snow and ice. Half of it is already rotted.

Well, i have no idea what this is a photo of. I was looking for a photo of the tree with the clematis climbing up, and accidently hit this one. Then couldn't find the right one. So this is what we get, whatever it is.

Oh, that's the 'Hot Bed' from last year. Looks almost the same this year but I put the Abutilon in a different place since it's in a pot. I'm thinking I will take out the yellow Dahlia coccinea. It detracts from the overall color scheme.

This message was edited Jul 9, 2009 10:49 PM

I lost a 5 year old creeping rosemary, several draceanas but just a few feet away 2 gerbera daisies wintered over and a few lettuce seedlings as well. It is always a surprise what returns and what doesn't.

I could not believe it, but almost all of my dahlias made it through the winter! I did not bother to dig them, then thought 'oh well, I'll just consider them annuals' when we had that hard winter. They really surprised me!