Yeah, well, the picture that emerges is this: when a plant is hardiness rated to zone 7, yes, I'm sure it survived single digit temps. somewhere. But as this winter proved, does that mean it can survive a month of repeated single digit temps, high winds, and extended cold spells below freezing? I noticed the first round of 3F did little damage to my gardenias; each successive cold spell was another blow. Even at the very beginning of March, my 'Chuck Hayes' still had a bit of green, and I wonder if we'd had an almost frost free March like some past ones have been, would it have managed to recover? But, no, we went onto have yet another cold outbreak, hitting single digits _again_. That finished it off. (Baltimore recorded its coldest March morning low in over 140 years of weather records!)

I'd had a 'Klein's Hardy' since 2006 that had shown no damage. I think I will wait a year to replant, but I probably will, and I will consider this winter a (hopefully) terrible aberration. So many things were outright killed that had never shown damage since 2005. (Or for certain plants I'd grown since the mid 90s, for 20 years. For example I'd never seen a winter damage Erica arborea alpina at all around here; this winter killed 2 of mine. In that case, it was because the heavy snows and winds combined with the freezes to rip their trunks apart)

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 14:55

Davidrt28, thanks for respondig.