I was worried about my fernleaf bleeding heart, but it's finally poking through. In spite of the cold, there's a lot of new growth on different things - just too cold to walk around looking for them!

I see some people talking about correopsis. All the correopsis are favorites of mine because they just keep blooming and blooming. I think I have every variety. The moonbeam is always the last to show up in the spring, I've had mine for at least 10 years and have taken pieces off it to spread around.

The sunray and pom-pom flowered ones simply bloom themselves to death if you let them. Starting the first of September I cut all the flowers off so the plant can put it's energy into growing into a healthy plant that can survive the winter. Even then it only lasts a few years But starts very easily from seed and usually blooms the first year.

The new irises I planted last year are looking good but I haven't counted to make sure they're all there. All my various dianthus and heuchera have come back. Most of my roses aren't looking good but I don't think we've had enough heat to bring them out yet. Polestar and the Rugosas are leafed out to the tips.

Lost a phlox. So I got a new one :)

lioninthelake - Heh, I've had similar experiences with my ninebarks and my cherry bomb barberry. My poor barberry has just a stub left at it's base, and yet - it's growing leaves! Attaboy! My ninebarks also had to be hacked to the ground after they got stepped on repeatedly (all this damage by my deck-building guy), plus they were moved around last year, and they are leafing out from the bottom nicely.

I'm pretty sure my daffodils are gonners though, still no sign. And my veronica "Royal Candles" isn't doing ANYTHING. I tug-tested it, and it still seems like something is there..but it hasn't popped up at all.

My dwarf irises are blooming! That is my first plant to bloom this year. Even my tulips are not that far along.

So far there's no sign of my Echinacea 'Sunrise'. :( The cactus Laurie sent me a few years ago is mush. There are no sign of a couple of nice lilies that were planted in the back bed - can't remember their name, but they were pretty. I also don't see any of my mums - the dendranthemum, 'Red Chimo' and two named 'Sharon' and 'Cecilia' that overwintered nicely last year. Any or all may still appear, but it seems odd that they would all go at once! And i don't see the pulsatilla, but that happened last year too and it turned up somewhere that i didn't expect it - same vicinity, though. I think this was a tough winter.

I see no signs of Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop) - at least a dozen plants that I started from seed last year. They were so nice and smelled wonderful.

My dwarf Munstead Lavender wintered great and is sending up growth from last year's stems.

The Black Lace Elder is also sending out new shoots. The Golden Elder has only a little tip kill.

I have a fair bit of winter kill on my roses and elders, once pruned they should come back nicely. My King of Blacks Dianthus has not shown any signs of life, my yucca Golden Sword is finally sending up shoots, I lost a Winterberry and 2 Heuchera. Thankfully all my hostas made it, some are still just poking thru the soil. Marg

I still have a few no shows, but today I was happy to see my Jackmanii clematis has new growth. Yay!
But I seem to have lost a lot of dianthus knappi and jacob's ladder that I've had for several years. Either they are short lived or this was a hard winter for them.

I'm seeing NO growth at the bottom base of all of Buck roses ;(

crazy_gardener: I have a few Explorer roses and all of them were winter killed above the ground. There are new shoots coming up tho. Since I'm in a warmer zone than you, maybe wait and new growth will come up. Marg

So far nothing on Miss Sunrise, my favourite. She didn't like being moved a couple of years ago - hasn't been the same since. :(

Sharon, if you can see green on the stems they should be fine.
Some of mine are really slow too. Roses love the heat. Not the "beginning of the ice age" we are in.

Finally there's some life on the lythrum. Amazingly enough, though, that beautiful yellow verbascum is a no-show so far. Guess i'm going to have to let some seedlings around where it was grow to see if they're the yellow ones too.

Hi all...

I just had to be sure what was coming up in the daylily seedling bed and from the daylily cv's I'd purchased last spring... the great news is... 88% of my daylily crosses survived their first brutal winter... though probably around 80% of the actual plants survived.. 53 of 60 crosses made it through... even though they didn't actually get put into the ground until early October... lol...I'm just as amazed as you are.. lol.. I hadn't got my seeds 'til late April of last year and got them started under lights in early May... so didn't actually put them outside until late August or early Sept... I only covered them with some carpet underlay when they had frozen in... we only had a couple of inches of snow in early Dec. when the temp. dropped to Minus 34 deg C... we don't ususally get those kind of temps 'til late Jan. when we usually have a foot or two of snow on all the perennials... but they managed to survive....

As for the 64 daylily cv's I had purchased last year... they only got planted in their pots up to the rims at the same time and 100% of them have come back.... and many with extra fans...I finally had some time to get the whole garden dug up and ready for all of the cv's this year so will get the ones from last year and around 70 arriving this year put in their proper places...

As well as those.. I see the usual weeds are coming back so, won't have to worry about that.. lol...

Hope the weather warms up for us all... :-)
Rob

I lost a spirea in my front yard. That was kind of weird. I have had spireas for years and never lost one. Everything else seems to have appeared, or maybe I just haven't missed anything yet. lol.

Sierra

Like most everyone else, things are going very slowing this 'summer'. Things in general are just weird. Tulips, daffodils, nanking cherry and crabapples are still blooming. My climbing clematis' finally started to emerge and my rambling clematis' (alionushka and columbiana) are blooming or about to finish doing so. My hostas in deeper shade started to send up shoots this week.

So far it seems most everything made it, save my solomon's seal and my cinnamon fern. However, the amount of die back on my roses is startling! My fairy and jp connell roses both died back to the roots after their second winter. My william baffin, prairie dawn, morden blush, bonica, rambling red and john davis all died back to less than 12 inches. The only rose that was completely unscathed was Blanc Double de Coubert.

Also my spirea (renaissance and japonica) both were hit hard too.

This summer is shaping up to being a repeat of a summer a few years ago when the warmest day was in May. I am truly disheartened and question 'whats the point' daily when I visit the garden. Some days I think tending dandelions and crab grass would be a better use of one's time.

There's no sign of life on my two primrose lilacs, and no sprouts yet on my Ville de Lyons clematis. The others, except for Dutchess of Winchester, all have started sprouting leaves, but very slowly. Same with the dogwood and my two euonymous - looks like leaf buds, but very few leaves. The viburnamu, though, is almost all leafed out and is covered with flower buds. The Coppertina ninebark is also almost fully leafed out. Oh, and a tree i WSed a couple of years ago looks like it might be dead too. It's one of those things whose name flies out of your head when you're trying to post - starts with C, large leaves. :)

Lost a clematis 'Polish Spirit', I think. Planted it last year.

I also planted a 'Henryii' clematis that's coming up super strong, even with this horrible weather.

We have 2 mountain ash trees planted about 30 feet apart. The Showy mountain ash wintered just fine while the Russian mountain ash had all its leaf buds frozen. It is still green under the bark and supple so Art Knapp's nursery said to wait and see if it might still set out another flush of leaves. It was planted out 2 years ago and had no sign of any problems so I am pretty sure its sap started to rise and then we had a cold snap after that. The Toba hawthorn we planted last year had a lot of winter kill on the ends of its branches too.All my climbing roses had to be pruned hard but sometimes that is a good thing.The 2 new clematis I bought last year are growing like crazy and the Pink Flamingo one has buds that are almost open on it.We had more then usual snow so everything else in the garden looks fine with no losses that I can think of.We have had many frosty mornings this spring but all the plants are thumbing their noses at it.I am staying hopeful the harder winter has taken care of my aphid problems with the delphs, so far the delphs look awesome.
Bemidjigreen as soon as your garden perks up and things really take off you will fall in love with it again and will forget about this miserable spring.Jean

I can't believe what a bad year it's been for roses. I was looking at them last night and wondering again why I bother. I think I lost Garden Party and Fragrant Cloud, and most of the others have only 2-3" shoots coming from the base. Some one-cane wonders by the looks of things. They should be starting to bloom in June and there's no way that's happening this year.

I also have a lot of dead branches on my spireas, and my Euonymous alata are dead almost back to the trunks. The purple leaf sand cherry looks like it finally bit it altogether.

Haven't had too many losses but still keeping my fingers crossed on my rue. It's one of my favs and has survived probably 5 years now. I moved it about a month ago just as it was showing signs of life and then we had to be away for 2 weeks so the garden was on it's own. We had no rain so everything was parched and the rue looked dead when I came home. I've been watering steadily for a week now and it's started putting out leaves so may be OK. Getting really tired of watering this increasingly large garden with no underground system but no rain in sight. Gonna mulch soon and hope for rain. Mustn't b*tch too much about the warm weather tho, it's been so long getting here and it'll be way too short I know.

My goldmound spirea is looking a bit sparse but maybe it'll come along.

The really strange and unexpected losses are a small Russian olive that survived it's first winter but didn't this last one. Also a common caragana. Both hardy plants. The one DH mowed a couple of years ago is doing fantastically so I suggested he might mow more of them! ;-) Another of DH's trees, a crimson birch isn't looking too great but not sure why. Possibly needs to be in a sunnier location as the other trees are now shading it.

Just joined the forum....

We built our garden last year so all of the plants were planted in 2008. There were 2 plants that didn't come back - Astilbe and a willow (Nishiki Hakuro). Everything else is doing well, although both Snow Pavement roses have died back to nearly ground level.

Keep waiting on the astilbe. They can come out very late, even later than hostas.

It is amazing what I have found that made it through the winter. Things I didn't get planted in last fall like 2 spirea, 2 dogwood and a nine bark. I also found a Josse lilac that was destined for the garbage literally as it got missed entirely. I stuck it in a 6" pot and watered it and then put it in with the other little guys who didn't get planted in. The little thing has leaves like crazy! These little bushes sure are hardy! They are all leafing out now. And lilies that I thought I had lost for sure are poking up through the ground to greet the sun! I even found my Virginia Creeper who I thought for absolute was gone, leafing out from the root! Well, the good news is that if they can survive that craziness, I guess they will be around for a while. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?? And patience for a gardener is really a lovely virtue!

Ginny

Welcome to the Far North forum groggyfrog! I've never had any luck 3x with Nishiki Hakuro! I finally gave up on this beautiful shrub.

somethings we just can't grow ;)

Have fun here,
Sharon

New to this forum as well. Usually hang out on pond forum. This is a lousy spring--frost warnings again for tonight. I too had to cut back most of my roses to about a ft from the ground and all are hardy roses. I have a wayfaring tree that is not budding out although the trunk bark and branches are all green under the bark. Diablo Ninebark very few leaves and neither does my red stemed dogwood. I have a Golden Sutherland Elder that is about 8 ft tall that is totally leaved out and producing flowers. The waterlililes in the deep end of the pond have just reached the surface but the ones I transplanted that are in shallow water a foot over the pot aren't doing anything. I'm getting green algae along the sides of the pond due to lack of cover on the top of the pond. No point in putting out water hyacinth as it will just freeze. The good news is the forecast for Sat is 27C and if you can believe weather reports not supposed to get below 20C here until the end of June--don't know about the night temps though. I think those low night temps and no rain is creating all this slow growth. I have friends here who will have to buy feed for their cattle if it doesn't rain this week. Not a good sign!

I thought my 'King of Blacks' Dianthus was a goner. There was no sign of any growth. I went to dig up the plant and toss it but noticed that there was small white growth starting from the roots so back it went. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's my favorite dianthus so far, until the next one! Marg

Welcome Jalal.

I was thinking of buying some golden elders, so glad to hear they came through well for you.

Sierra

If you're losing your King of Blacks Dianthus, try 'Sooty'. It's really pretty and reliable for me, it is actually evergreen and I never lose any.

All my mums are looking like they're toast - one or two scraggly leaves, and they should be nice little mounds by now. I had to trim a lot off my roses too, even John Davis, and I thought it was pretty much winter-proof. Even my old, old Persian yellow is mostly gone - I sure hope it comes back, it was a gift to my MIL. If it dies, the only rose I'll have left that she had will be Adelaide Hoodless. The raspberries are all dead on top, so not many berries this year, and the strawberries are looking shabby. I lost a Coppertina ninebark, some butterfly weed, rue, and beebalm and there's a few other things that are going to have to perk up or face the shovel. It's really dry here too Jalal. We had 1" of rain last week, but it's not near enough. The hay crop is pretty much gone, and we're hoping we won't have to sell some of our cattle herd before the end of summer. Between the cold and the dry, things are just sitting.

Connie

My Polish Spirit came up! Yay!

The clematis is back and, of course, the ever prevalent Johnny-jump-ups.

Here is a link that might be useful: Renaissance clothing

Still waiting on clematis Ville de Lyons. All the others are coming along fine and this one is a no-show so far. :(

The lilies that weren't showing in back are now up. I remembered their name - Muscadet.

The Catalpa (remembered that too) still has no leaves or buds even, but a scratch test shows green. Same with the two primrose lilacs. I guess i'll just wait them out.

Don't give up yet on Ville de Lyon, Marcia. I thought mine was gone, but now I can see a tiny sprout coming up.

We just had a good downpour during a thunderstorm, so that should encourage the few stragglers.

I'm pretty positive I've lost my chrysanthemum though. Also some odd things are happening. I have 2 bleeding heart plants showing no sign of live, but my other one is 2 feet tall.
Yesterday's cause for celebration was the appearance of the Japanese painted fern.

I planted two bleeding heart two years ago and both did not show up last spring. This year, POOF, there they are! Same thing with my Virginia Bluebells. Nature works in strange ways!

Ginny

My in-law's Ville de Lyon just came up on the weekend.

Things are a good two weeks behind this year. The only thing that bloomed the same time last year was the saskatoon bush. Even my species tulips were late.

Still no action on Ville de Lyons, but suddenly the catalpa has leaves around the "crown" of branches. One of the primrose lilacs has leaves on a lower branch. Nothing on the other one, though.

My official Death Toll on roses is Garden Party, Sonia, and Kordes Perfecta. They were all several years old and Sonia was at least 20 years old. Bummer.

Some of my Oriental lilies are just little stringers this spring. Not sure if they will ever recover or just fade away.

I had given up on my Jackmani Clematis. I only planted it last year, but it did very poorly. I waited this spring, and still nothing, so I put a huge planter in the spot instead.

I was squirting some Ecosense on the crabgrass behind the planter yesterday and discovered my clematis coming up very nicely =:)

I sure hope it survives the spray......

Thanks for the advice, shazam, The astilbe is finally emerging.

Sharon, the Nishiki willow still looks dead :(
Too bad since it is such a lovely shrub.

I don't remember clematis every coming up so late. I think I lost a new one, however, despite mulching. Maybe it just was too soggy of a spot. I still hope it comes up but time's running out.

I also lost my Japanese blood grass and northern lights grass, but they were soggy spot.

My Endless summer hydrangea survived fairly well as did the Tiger Eyes sumac.

I had big sections where my lamium died out completely, which totally surprised me. Sometimes the plants survive and stay green, other times at least the roots survive. I'm not worried though, enough did survive that maybe I can fill in the area once again.

Glen

Glen, i lose much of my 'White Nancy' every year, yet other lamiums ('aureum', esp.) come through with flying colours (in this case, yellow. LOL).

Still no sign of Ville de Lyons. :( Another one i planted last summer did not come back either. I think it was called 'Dutchess of Edinburgh'.

One thing i've noticed is that several malvas in one bed didn't come back. There are a few volunteers in another bed that are doing quite well (almost like small shrubs), but nothing in the original bed.

Believe or not, the huge patch of Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina) passed away. I'm kind of glad because it was taking over a section. I'll find another one to replace it ;)

The only Buck rose that made it was Hawkeye Belle and they were all own root roses ;(

Sharon

Not only didn't I lose any lamiums over the winter, they are turning into major weeds in my beds. They have self seeded profusely. I could have a carpet of nothing else. I have several cultivars and no longer remember their names, and I think some of them have reverted to a more vigorous type. But some have seeded true to the parent and are also everywhere.

But still I like them and am allowing a few to remain. But what a job to contain them!

There's still no sign at all of Ville de Lyons. :( Then there's Tangutica - tang, alright, as in tangled mess! LOL That thing is something else!

It seems so off some of the things that some people lose and other people don't - for instance, all my stuff was planted last year, so this horrible winter was their first, and all I lost was a Veronica! And I'm in 2b. And then there are so many of you guys that lost stuff that you've had around for years!

What a weird year. I wonder what the difference is? Maybe more snow cover; my stuff is all in a big bed wrapping around the house, and it usually gets snowed in pretty good.

We have plenty of snow cover too, but i think the cold weather after the snow had melted might account for some of the losses.

I think so too Marcia. Here too we had plenty of snow during the winter, it was most likely the thaw and then the many deep freezes thereafter.

So it's goodbye Ville de Lyons and hello what else? Hmmmm....