Sorry for your loss, maybe just maybe they are playing hide and seek like my peony? wishful thinking.

Check for peanuts.

Some stupid squirrel left me peanuts in exchange for my expensive fern leaf peony last year :(

If the squirrels take my fern leaf peony it will be war. I don't like the little rodents but ignore them but that wud be bad for them. Gee I have so many yellow hollyhocks sprouting every where. They are so big I had to chop the stem down and so big across I cudn't even reach around the plant. Way too big for a flower bed.

That's big! Mine were just tall:

Ouch, marcia! That was a rude surprise!!!

The only good thing that I can see is that, you can get to plant other perennials now! LOL See there are some "perks" with far north gardening, eh? LOL

Well, i did think of that and i do have a couple of things with nowhere to go.... LOL But i'll wait a bit and see how the seedlings in there grow because if they're like their parent plants - watch out!

I thought hollyhocks are often biennial in our climate, or at the very least, a short-lived perennial. Maybe it was just "old"?

I've had them there for years, and with so many of them, it was hard to tell if they're biennial or not. I'm sure, though, that they were coming back from the same roots each year. This corner faces pretty much south and i had originally intended it for trying zone 4 and 5 things, but threw the hollyhockes in there because there was nowhere else for them at the time, and there they stayed. If they don't come back, that's what i'll do. An odd thing is that two other clumps are gone as well - they yellow ones and black ones as well, though it looks as if there is something coming up near where the black ones were. We shall see!

maybe the squirrels brought you begood's peony

LOL I meant it looks like a hollyhock back there. Will have to investigate further!

An odd year - in my yard zone 5-ish Crocosmia wintered just fine but the ever faithful Autumn Joy Sedums took a big hit. ??? who knows.

Autumn Joy Sedum hates me. I thought it was gone, but just last week it finally started to show life. If it dies, I won't try again. Enough is enough. In my sister's garden none of her hens and chicks survived. Who knows why.

Very odd, my Autumn Joy took a bad hit this year too, I have no clue why. In the past 5 years it has always come back and done really well. This year I see that one of the plants has a tiny bit of growth and the other one looks dead. I didn't lose any hen and chicks except one. I would have thought with all the snow cover that things would do well, but maybe it was just too darn cold.

No sign of field mice damage? A few years ago there was a bad mouse winter, when the snow melted the trails and holes they left was terrible. We have barn cats and my gardens didnt have much damage except where they tunneled around the logs at the raised vege beds but a couple friends had mega damage.

I wish the fillipendula and centaura would have taken a big hit this winter .....

Which fillipendula are you referring to Marcia? I was given one last year by my SIL, and I'm becoming concerned by its wandering tendencies. On the other hand, I have filipendula hexapetula that stays in a nice clump.

Hmmm, i can't remember which one it is. It can get quite tall some years and has a frothy pink flower to it. It's gorgeous, but it's all over the place - spreads by runners. I've been digging it out like crazy, and i'm going to try to isolate a few of them using ice cream pails with no bottoms. Well, i keep saying that i'm going to do that and i never get around to it, and then i'm cursing myself... But i will do it - i have to because it's everywhere!

I found this information and thought it might help!

Hollyhocks mostly are classified as a biennial, but in some cases are classified as a perennial. Frankly, the classification is confusing, but I will attempt to clear it up. The Malva alcea, known by the common name hollyhock mallow, is classed as a perennial. We all associate the indestructible plant with our grandparents or great-grandparentsâ homes. They appear to tolerate just about any environmental conditions outside of the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer! The Althaea rosea is classed as simply a hollyhock. While the Malva alcea flowers from June to September, the Althaea rosea flowers from early July through September. There is not a lot of difference, but the Althaea rosea species is said to be able to will survive as a perennial in mild climates. It also is high on the list of desirable plants to eat by Japanese beetles. Apparently, the dependability of this species to be a perennial is in question because it self-seeds, which gives the gardener the impression that it is a perennial, but is behaving like an annual. To add to the confusion, in some instances the plants are biennial because the seed will germinate in the spring, remain as a vegetative rosette that summer and then bolt and flower the following year.
Hence, the desirability of the Malva spp., which is classed as perennial and the more desirable one because of its consistent growth habits.

Jean, I didn't remember the latin, but I know some of the ones I sowed were Althea rosea - the others i'm not so sure about. It did seem as if they were indestructible, but we had some cold weather last fall before the snow arrived and some this spring after the snow had gone. So maybe that's what happened to them. The ones there do seem to be more vegetative. It will be interesting to watch them this summer. I liked my hollyhocks but I'd love to be able to use that area for higher zone plants.

It just seemed weird that not only those hollyhocks were gone but so are some that were in another area across the path from them. There are hollyhocks growing in the area where the black ones were, but they too seem to be just vegetative.

Jean, I didn't remember the latin, but I know some of the ones I sowed were Althea rosea - the others i'm not so sure about. It did seem as if they were indestructible, but we had some cold weather last fall before the snow arrived and some this spring after the snow had gone. So maybe that's what happened to them. The ones there do seem to be more vegetative. It will be interesting to watch them this summer. I liked my hollyhocks but I'd love to be able to use that area for higher zone plants.

It just seemed weird that not only those hollyhocks were gone but so are some that were in another area across the path from them. There are hollyhocks growing in the area where the black ones were, but they too seem to be just vegetative.

That wasn't Jean that posted that information, Marcia. That was me!

Syreeta

Sorry! :(

No problem, I know I don't make an appearance here very often.