With the exception of the heuchera, stachys, lavender, and the dianthus, none of those perennials is considered evergreen, at least in your climate. And even those four will be showing some winter stress on old foliage. It also may be a bit early for most of the others to be showing much in the way of new growth. Salvia greggii is not even reliably hardy to zone 6 and if it is, it is only root hardy, certainly not anywhere close to evergreen.

In my area, spring clean up is fully underway. If not cut back in fall, I cut back and clean up all herbaceous perennial foliage at this time. And that includes "evergreens" as well, as most are not evergreen in the same sense shrubs and conifers are and need seasonal clean up. The lavender should be sheared back but wait until you see new growth emerging and do not shear back beyond that point - the woody growth will not regenerate new foliage.

Probably the best resource you could have at hand is The Well-Tended Perennial Garden by Traci DiSabato-Aust. This will provide you with all the care requirements (including when and how to cut back/clean-up, dividing, transplanting, etc.)on a very wide range of perennials - several hundred different species. It is well worth the investment.

Don't be to quick to assume something is dead. Give things some time. Just because something is listed as evergreen, doesn't mean it is in your zone. In my garden nothing is really evergreen (except spruce, pine trees).Gardengal gave you a great book recommendation. Invest, relax and learn as you go.

Gardengal, thanks so much for sharing what I know is your considerable knowledge. I'm going to find the book you recommended today...it has exactly the kind of information I'm looking for. I bought three other books online last Fall in an effort to prepare but they weren't nearly as detailed as I require or want.

Monrovia & Parks both list Salvia Flare Heatwave as hardy to zone 6 but I take note of the differentiation between root versus stem/foliage hardiness. I'll see how they do since I already have them.

I hesitate to start cutting back everything now in zone 6 compared to your zone 8 just in case we get another late snow storm or torrential late winter rains.

My niece and her new husband (McChord AFB) just moved to Spanaway, WA and I'm terribly jealous of her fenced in sunny back yard and zone advantages.

Hostaholic, thanks for seconding book recommendation and encouragement to wait and see what happens. I always feel like I'm short on gardening time horizon since I don't know how long my father will stay in this house. I'll enjoy it and be pleased when neighbors enjoy all the flowers they don't plant because of critters decimating so many plantings. I don't care how awful it looks but I'm fencing garden beds until plants grow a while this year. Once things have filled in a bit and I can get some smelly herbs planted all around I'll take the fencing down. At least that should keep the deer away for short while since they won't jump into small fenced areas.

Thanks again for your responses...some experience sharing and reassurance is more appreciated than you know.

It's WAAYYYY too early to be sweating about unpromising-looking mounds of dried leaves and mush! You will see, many plants take their sweet time in the spring and even where I am, NONE of the herbaceous perennials have really gotten going (though I did see little new shoots at the base of the bronze fennel). It's not too early to poke around with your fingers at the base of the plants and look for new shoots, but it is too early to be worried if you don't see anything. When you do see new shoots, like on your nepeta, just cut off the dead stuff.

Leave the lavender until Memorial Day and trim dead stuff at that point.

For reference, my dianthus did keep some gray-green leaves all winter, but new growth hasn't started yet and there's plenty of dead material on there, too. Echinops - I have mature plants and cut these down last fall, no new growth yet. Asters, liatris, ironweed - all stone, cold dormant still. Digitalis - about two-thirds of each basal rosette is black and crispy. I trimmed the dead stuff off yesterday, but the new growth isn't there yet.

Don't fret!

Thanks for the pointers, leslies. If you don't see new growth in your zone 7 I know I'm too early to see much in zone 6 but I lost so many new little plants last year that I'm steeling myself for this spring.

When a newbie sees all the beautiful photos and layouts of people on the forums it takes time to figure out that even experienced gardeners don't have 90-100% success with everything.

Fretting is my nature and I expect too much in too little time. I take on too much trying to get it "all" done when I'm flying by the seat of my pants still.

Light set and heat mat arriving this week so I can start some things early indoors for first year bloom/earlier growth. Have lots of seeds to start outside that don't need early start or like colder conditions...and still buying seeds...LOL.

Got 50 Bronze Fennel seeds in one little packet which is more than I'll ever use. Want them for Black Swallowtails which I hand raised last year although they were perfectly happy on plain old green fennel bought in a six pack from a road side stand. Love the Swallowtail beauties.

They're holding a copy of "The Well Tended Perennial Garden" for me at B&N which I'll pick up in next day or two.

When I cut back dead stems I'm going to have to mark the spots carefully because if not for the stems I wouldn't know there were plants in some places.

Thanks again for the "cool it cucumber" message and reassurance.

Leslie R :)

do note that cleanup is underway in gal's z8 .... you are weeks away ...

i will give you the best advice available ...

STAY THE HECK OUT OF YOUR GARDEN FOR ANOTHER MONTH ... period .. paragraph...

DO NOT GO WALKING IN YOUR SOIL ... you will compact the soil

DO NOT GO POKING AROUND ... you might kill a viable plant

DO NOT GO DOING ANY CLEANUP ..

your plants remain fully dormant ... and will continue to be so .. for another 3 to 6 weeks depending on the vagaries of mother nature ...

admit it.... you are becoming a farmer ... and all farmers do is fret ... and its useless .. when your base is mother nature ...

it will all come in time .. some will die.. some will thrive.. some will be early .. some will be late... some you will think they will live.. and wont.. some you are sure are dead will live ...

your goal is to make your thumb green .. and you will only do that by working the soil ... when the time comes.. no amount of books or websites is going to change the need to work the soil ... in fact .. it is most likely. that all they will do is make you worry more ....

in a few weeks.. pull back any mulch.. so that the ambient temps can reach the soil near the plant ... gently bringing them out of dormancy ...

then wait a few more weeks .. and you will start to see the new growth ...

when it is large enough to focus on.. gently go in .. and prune out the ugly old stuff ...

it is that simple ...

if you do it too soon ... you might cut off the good stuff ...

i am really dieing of seasonal affective disorder ... the soil is just thawing ... and the temps are rising very slowly .. but all i do.. is walk.. ON THE LAWN .. around and around my beds.. knowing i can only do harm.. by starting too early .. and its killing me.. lol ...

patience is all we have this early in the season ...

and dont be fooled by a couple of nice days ... because ma nature is a cruel mistress ...

and if you want more evergreen plants in your garden in z6 .... start looking at conifers ....

your plants will let you know when the time is.. if you can just leave them alone long enough to do so ...

good luck

ken

PS: i guess i am telling you its a zen attitude ... wait and watch ..... ohhhhmmmmmmm

pps: a good thing to do.. is find a local professional garden ... and walk through it once a week.. and see what they are doing ... its a good trick to know what the experts are doing.. as a guide to what you should be doing ...

Re: the fennel......it is considered moderately to extremely invasive (specially the bronze form which seems to seed much more freely than the green) in many areas of the country so check with your local extension service to see if suitable to plant in your location.

ken_adrian...so I'm not the only one who's been walking all around a few times a day...checking, checking and more checking.

The deer have been eating the Daffodil, Boxwood, Yew, Holly, Azalea & Rhododendron foliage for months and now the groundhogs, chipmunks and rabbits are venturing forth to plague me. I've already tried rotating repellants to no avail. Next year I'm wrapping at least Azaleas & Rhodos no matter how much my father yells "It looks like Hogan's alley out there..."...LOL.

My feet are numb from being out there for a couple hours even though I have some old dependable "20 below" LLBean boots on. Don't worry...I was just looking & spraying again.

I've been trying to figure out how people don't step onto their soil to work in the gardens. I hauled in some organic top soil in Fall to raise already amended beds because I don't have time to wait for existing clay to respond to more organic material additions. I'm always stepping onto soil to plant, deadhead, hand water,etc.
Guess I'll get some bricks/stepping stones to strategically place in beds so I only step on empty spaces so as not to compact soil this year.

Gardengal, I checked the invasive species list and bronze fennel isn't on it for NJ or northeastern forest(s). I've passed up many a pretty flower after finding them on those lists. I can't even get someone to legally come in to do a controlled burn for garlic mustard which isn't even as bad in some ways as the Chinese Wisteria that's destroyed most of our country's understory and takes down trees every year. I pull and hack as much as I can but garlic mustard seeds have a 7 year life span so it's a losing battle on one lot among tens of thousands.

If I don't have bronze fennel it won't be the worst thing since I can just as easily raise Black Swallowtails on the green fennel. Just thought I could put it in very large pot with their preferred nectar plants since that increases likelihood they'll lay eggs on fennel.

Just another thing to figure out...LOL.

Garlic mustard is easy. It pulls easily, and can't handle lawn height. Most of the really, truly nasty invasives can't handle being mowed.

ah, ken, your voice is the voice of reason ~~ i needed a slap upside the head cuz i am just itching to go out & poke & prod ~~

i DO have stepping stones every couple of feet in the larger beds, so at least i can sneak in a little bit of closer- up inpections here & there!

big excitement yesterday ~~ the peony is poking through!!!

phyl

Mad_Gallica, I pulled garlic mustard for 2 days last year. Cleared one side of the property under White Pines. Some other weed came up in its place and new basal rosettes of garlic mustard appeared from seed bank in soil. It's marched on through taller wood's edge greenery (more weeds) and right into the lawn about 5-10 feet already. What's in the lawn gets mowed but basal rosettes don't get cut out or stop growing & spreading seed. Can't mow in treed area...just too uneven ground.

Phyl, that slap upside the head is exactly what I need most of the time...LOL.

Leslie

I've been trying to figure out how people don't step onto their soil to work in the gardens.

----------

you have specific walkways thru the bed ....

doesnt have to be more than 6 inches ... its not areas you allow others to trod thru ....

just places you put your feet ... and dont have to worry about compaction ... because you dont plant anything there ..

or a patio stone ...

even a 2 foot square piece of plywood which distributes your weight

then of course.. spreading your weight over 2 knees and 1 hand ... instead of all on two feet ... you need one hand to use.. lol ...

sometimes the newbies think to lineally ... sometimes the BEST route from A to C is not necessarily directly thru B ...

i know one guy whose back was so bad .... he did all his weeding laying on his side in his beds ... i guess he could say he never had to step into the garden... but all the neighbors moved away... lol ..

ken

Ken, I knew that was a really dumb thing to say on a garden forum but it's been one of those nagging little peculiarities that always has me perpelexed when I'm trying to get to plants, weeds and watering.

I like that guy who laid on his side to weed...ROFL.

You should've seen the looks I got when I sat on the curb by the street deadheading the Dianthus deltoides one by one instead of shearing them because I just couldn't bring myself to give up a single flower! They thought I was just a hard working gal instead of the OCD perfectionist I try to be...LOL.

Need more zen in my life...gardening was supposed to help. I'll make more of an effort this year...after I see if seedlings don't suffer from damping off!

Life marches on no matter how we try to pause it for our notion of the ideal. First crocus bloomed yesterday. That's zen in a little package if one is wise enough to notice.

Leslie

If you're losing daffodil foliage to deer you're probably the only one in the country. Daffodils are famously toxic in all of their parts. Critters avoid them, even as they eagerly dig up and chew down your tulips.

With regards to Salvias and zone recommendations from national suppliers, be aware that even though you (& I) have winter temps. that put us in zone 6, the zone 6 people in Colorado and in Missouri are dealing with very different climates than we are. Many of the Salvias are notorious for their hatred of wet soil. Very often cold wet soils kill Salvias because the roots rot. They grow naturally in arid or semi-arid regions. Some of them will grow well enough in our wet climate, but many others will sulk in the summer, then die in the winter.

I don't grow them, but when I see them in catalogs I always make a point of seeing how well they tolerate moisture before I fantasize about how that Salvia offering would look in my flower bed.

Newbie, I'm also in central NJ - near the shore so in Zone 7, and I'm just now beginning to see green shoots of some of my perennials beginning to emerge. (OK, so I was out poking around, peeking under the mulch ... I put it back after giving a few words of encouragement!)

It's true, patience is the key ... after all, in gardening isn't the anticipation, the potential, the best part? Let's face it, when things are at their peak, glorious as it may be, it's all downhill from there. (How's that for being a total wet blanket.)

I second the suggestion to find a public garden in your area and visit frequently so see what's going on there. I work at a public garden here in Monmouth County and our staff is always happy to answer visitors' questions.

York_rose, I knew when I bought the 3 Salvia greggii Heatwave that they wouldn't make it in mailbox bed with winter snow from street but was going to try them further back where bed is very raised. I also knew intellectually that they were a long shot but my heart took over. If they bloom this year and I get to see some pretty color and flying beauties around them it'll be worth it. I can always try keeping them in pots since they're on the small side and overwinter either heeled in or in pot ghetto with bagged leaves all around.

As far as the Daffodil foliage it would have to be the deer eating it as there weren't other critters out and about all winter. The deer hoof marks were also a sign it was them. Some foliage came up very prematurely last summer and they started in on it then and continued through winter. During a warm winter spell I sowed Larkspur seed under open top half of clear bottles (so seeds wouldn't float away or get eaten) and deer plucked up bottles and chewed them to hell. Of course those seeds & bottles were right in front of the yews they eat. A very long stretch of temporary 3-4' green rabbit fencing is going up this weekend around entire front garden and all the way around to side rose garden area. I have to give plants time to grow much less bloom.

I'm starting Salvia rupestris from seed indoors figuring if it doesn't survive winter or dies to the ground it's a more realistic goal since I can sow each year. I might get a small pot of blue salvia that's annual here just for the blooms and pollinator attraction.

agardenstateof_mind, I think I saw you post somewhere that you work at Deep Cut Park which is just up the road from my father's place. I've passed it many times during detours around construction on Middletown-Lincroft Rd. and as alternate to Rt. 35 north when I'm making a northward gardening swing to Home Depot, Lowes & Dearborn Farms. Dearborn Farms is expensive but they sometimes have things I can't find anywhere else locally. I need to get up there very soon to get Dot Pots for germinating some seeds. People at Breck's and other local places look at me like I have 2 heads when I ask for something that's not "Jiffy" although tons of people have great success with them.

I too peeked under the mulch on all the perennials yesterday and this morning...without stepping into the beds. Most have tiny fresh growth at crown but I'm not touching anything for a couple weeks until I have to plant some Campanula I have buried in pots.

Thought I read in the Press that you have some fencing to keep out deer and protect some of your gardens at Deep Cut. I'm jealous. :)

Although it takes a lot of time to hand water in August-early Sept. I tend to see only the glorious blooms all around and momentarily forget about what died or was eaten. I've also ordered spring blooming bulbs by then so have something to look forward to in Fall...the mad dash to get them all in the ground before it's too late...LOL.

Feeling hopeful today and will have to be satisfied with outdoor work of collecting downed branches & leaves, cutting up some downed trees and carting them closer to the street for pick-up in April. At least I'll be outside and get some exercise.

Yes, I do work at Deep Cut ... so don't just pass by, stop in sometime! We have a nice horticultural library, too. Yes, the entire park is fenced. Only the fence along Red Hill Road is that nice iron fencing, the rest is common wire deer fence but it keeps the deer out. If not for that, they'd feast on a lot of our plants, including the 177 rose bushes planted last April in the parterre.

The mad dash to get the bulbs in the ground in time is an annual ritual for me, too; I just can't resist adding some new ones each year, though.

Maybe it's the sandy soil, but salvias have done well in my gardens, even fairly close to the road, although I have Caradonna Sage, May Night and Rose Queen, not the greggii Heatwave variety. I hope yours do similarly well.

It's good to have the weather warming to the point where it's actually pleasant to be outside, even if only collecting downed branches and leaves. Your spring bulbs will be along before you know it.

Wow! You have some hungry deer! Larkspur's toxic, too. (It's in the buttercup family and a lot of our garden plants from that family are toxic.)

York_rose, they actually ate the plastic half bottles I'd put over the seeds so they wouldn't wash away. I've spent 2 years looking for "toxic" plants that would hopefully attract butterflies and Larkspur & Delphs fit the bill.

I specifically picked Larkspur, Delphs & cornflowers because I read so many times here on the forums that "you just throw out the seeds in late winter/early spring and they grow like crazy." I used the plastic bottle top as a precaution to no avail.

I'm glad you mentioned the buttercup family. I googled it and found that glowing promise of toxicity. Most plants that don't bloom in spring are quite large. Thalictrum fits the bill for butterflies but the beautiful meadow rue is upwards of 6'. I'm going to keep perusing the list to see what I can fit in the smallish gardens I've got. Thanks for the tip.

agardenstateof_mind, how exciting to work among all those plantings to see the blooms and transitions from season to season on that scale. Would assume that's not always the "state of mind" after months of hard work on a project but still glorious with big shows of color. Your GW name reminds me of Billy Joel's song every time I see it!

I only know what a "parterre" is from watching P. Allen Smith...LOL. 177 Rose bushes protected by perimeter fencing is like a dream and should be a sight to behold this year.

I could read through gardening material for hours on end and not just for the pictures. :)

Monkshood/wolfsbane/Aconitum is probably the most notoriously toxic of that bunch, but there are plenty of others, including peonies. If I remember right, dairy farmers don't usually like it if their meadows have buttercups in them. It either isn't good for the cattle, or good for the milk (or both?)

York_rose, I'm happy to announce that under the one of three half bottles the deer didn't eat there is a little sprout. I'm so excited! Better be larkspur and not a weed...LOL.

What a difference a week makes. New leaves on Heuchera, 3 out of 4 Foxglove survived and have new leaves, little nubs coming up in crowns of dwarf Aruncus and beautiful new succulent "crowns" on 3 Sedums. Thought 2 Sedums I have in beds were goners since some animal ate them mercilessly last year. Supplemental fence circle for one in already fenced butterfly garden to protect and a big old Datura near enough other Sedum to hopefully warn animals off one in front bed. Hesitate to move that one since I hastily transplanted it to pile of soil just in Nov. to rearrange bed...then I ran out of non-frozen ground time. Didn't think it'd make it after really too late transplant and exposed to so much wind up by street but it did.

I emailed our local extension and they said it was okay to plant Datura Metal. Horticulturist even said she grows it in her yard.

Spring has sprung!

So exciting to see new growth on things...but still got weeks to go and plants to pray over...LOL.