Last winter was particularly hard on plants here in western Washington, what with early frosts, deep freezes, and generally cool conditions at the tail end. Even plants that survived multiple of the previous winters, plants that weathered some of the coldest temperatures in the last few decades, plants that I payed good money for, dammit, decided that this past winter was just too much to handle.
There seem to be some patterns, though. Antipodeans did poorly (excepting members of Gaultheria and Ourisia modesta). Chileans, with a few exceptions, did well. Native plants got hit hard, but mostly by slugs. And enough plants died because of my stupidity that I don't feel altogether bad about buying them again. It may be a few years for some of them, though.
So, in alphabetical order, here is a fairly comprehensive list of plants that didn't survive the winter.
Allium crenulatum - This cute little alpine onion never did very well in my garden. I want to try it on the other side of the alpine bed.
Anomatheca laxa - I hoped for a mild winter. I did not get a mild winter. Not an unexpected death.
Antirrhinum majus - Yes, I lost snapdragons, including some that had been going for upwards of five years. They will be sorely missed. Then they will be replaced. By more snapdragons.
Artemisia ludoviciana and A. lindleyana - Both collected from along the Columbia in eastern Washington. Assuming I had the latter correctly identified, the main difference between these is that A. ludoviciana is very pretty and smells real good, while A. lindleyana is fairly pretty and smells not at all. Both gone from the propagation end of my alpine bed.
Artemisia suksdorfii - A native from under the local powerlines, dead under the eaves. I'll have to go out in the next few weeks and collect a few more slips of this plant before they mow the area flat. Perhaps they'll eventually go out by the street? It's not the world's most glamorous plant, but it looks decent enough and sure smells good.
Azara lanceolata - Bought from the Calvert greenhouse at the UW arboretum. Not the hardiest Azara, but it was still supposed to be a background to my main shade bed. I'm now counting on Lonicera nitida and Rhododendron prunifolium.
Cardamine sp. - While I still have at least one specimen of each sort of Cardamine I grow (barring C. nuttallii from the local woods), every single one is hard-hit. It doesn't appear to be the cold for most, rather, the slugs find all the native species irresistible, only sparing the Eurasian C. trifolia. The one from Idaho, however, died out in all its pots, and only remains in the ground. Harrumph. C. californica sinuata from Far Reaches Farm (apparently, I'm a Cardamine expert - who knew?) put up a fantastic show this March, but is now eaten back to the stems. I do hope that it got enough food stored in the tubers (what to call those organs? Their anatomy is so weird...) to come back next year.
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| One of two Cardamine leaves left of any species (bar C. trifolia). This is C. angulata. |
Corydalis curviflora rosthornii 'Blue Heron' - An inexpensive impulse buy from McLendon's Hardware last summer. One went in the open part of my shade bed and died within a month (too much surface runoff). The other was squeezed underneath the overhang of my cedar log with a still-beautiful Mitella ovalis. I have but little hope for it.
(My Corydalis scouleri collection also got cut in half. Damn slugs.)
Fuchsia 'Billy' - Bought from Earthworks Fuchsias a few years ago. It stayed in a pot outside with no protection and flowered profusely every year. I went back and got another (and a bunch of other Fuchsia, more later). I think 'Billy' will go in the ground this time.
Fuchsia procumbens - I can't remember where I got this. All I care is that I have a few precious cuttings starting indoors.
Geranium palmatum - Perhaps the winter leaf covering got too wet. I need to put a better rain shell on those.
Grevillea victoriae - Calvert greenhouse, last year. Near the south wall of the house. Kept phosphorus away from it. Did things right. It still died. Carpenteria californica nearby is okay consolation, though.
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| This used to be a Grevillea. Now it's barely worth pulling out and composting. |
Hydrangea serratifolia - Calvert greenhouse, last year. No clue why it died. It's right next to my perfectly happy Desfontainea (see under Luma, below).
Hydrophyllum fendleri fendleri - This native produces three-foot dissected leaves in moist shade. At least ones that aren't mine do. I have some seedlings to replace mine, but they take a good while.
Impatiens rothii - From Far Reaches. No sign of it in the shade bed.
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| The only Impatiens left in the garden: five stems of I. omeiana. |
Kalmiopsis leachiana - K. fragrans is doing fine. I don't know what K. leachiana's problem is.
Leptarrhena pyrolifolia - This saxifrage relative is one of my favorite natives, but the new colony by my Gunnera died completely, and the really old one in my alpine bed got cut down down to one stem.
Lewisia columbiana - Only my plant from Idaho died, the one that I needed to place with relation to the recognized subspecies. The Festuca ovina from the same location, and in the same location, may have had something to do with its demise.
Lobelia excelsa - From the fabulous but currently very quiet Potato Rock, this survived outside 2012/2013, but perished from root rot indoors this January. Requiescat in pace.
Lobelia laxiflora 'Bruce Wakefield' - I got this from Far Reaches Farm last year under the injunction that I find out what it is. Well, in the most recent classification of Lobelia section Homochilus, this falls under the broad umbrella of L. laxiflora subspecies laxiflora, as does the shrubby plant going around as "Candy Corn Lobelia." (In that treatment, the commonly available L. l. angustifolia is the only other subtaxon formally segregated.) Near the south wall, between a Salvia officinalis and a Spiraea x pyramidata must not be that nice a neighborhood. Possibly the same reason as Geranium palmatum.
Lobelia spp. - Various little New Zealanders. All dead underneath my Gunnera.
Luma apiculata 'Glenleam Gold' - From Bovee's last year. I had it in a sheltered spot, I swear. I think I need to re-evaluate the drainage patterns in the garden it was in - the runoff may have gone right over it. How else to explain the far-less-hardy Desfontainea spinosa (from the same source) that's sprouting out all over not four feet away?
Oxalis triliifolia - Dead under the Gunnera. Still quite happy across the yard.
Smelowskia americana - This pretty alpine mustard was from a collection made in Utah some years ago. I cannot tell why it picked this winter to bite it. I think it took the mystery Erigeron it was growing next to with it.
After all that death, let's have some life, shall we? Here are some plants that survived, even though they probably shouldn't have.
Cardamine angulata (probably no flowers this year, but there's a leaf the slugs didn't get!)
Crinodendron hookerianum (I shouted for joy when I found the three little sprouts on the bottom)
Desfontainea spinosa (I love this plant ALMOST as much as Crinodendron hookerianum)
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| It's not a holly. (Read in Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice.) |
Lobelia polyphylla (caught the root rot on that one)
Mitraria coccinea (upper branches dead, but lower ones sprouting out; may get moved)
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| See? Mitraria is still alive! |
Selaginella douglasii (my favorite spikemoss, by far, but a little finicky)
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| The only shot of S. douglasii I took that shows both strobili and macrophylls. |
And now it's time to load up on plants that will die this coming winter!
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