What has surprised you by NOT coming back?

11 years ago

Early last fall, I obtained quite a few small starts of different sedum cultivars from Santa Rosa. Not sure why, but very, very few are coming back this spring. They were planted late August/early September and I trimmed off any developing buds or flowers, so they should have had ample time to establish.

In contrast, the huge fall-planted bare root sedums from Hallson Gardens all survived beautifully.

It appears with sedums that size does make a difference in terms of hardiness!

This is not intended to criticize Santa Rosa in any way. I have obtained many wonderful things from them at excellent prices and I will continue to order from them. I will just spring plant any sedums I get from them, however :-)

In addition, it looks like Delosperma 'Fire Spinner' is dead as door nails. I will not replace this seemingly silly and fickle little plant. So much for marketing hype!

What have you all planted (new or established) that failed to return after this strange winter?

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Comments (8)

gardenweed_z6a
11 years ago
I've lost at least two mature Baptisia/false indigo plants. Both came up & bloomed profusely in years past. Normally they die back completely and re-emerge the following spring but these two never did die back completely. I have three others; one has sent up new growth but the other two are still buried under a blanket of dead leaves.
Ispahan Zone6a Chicago
Original Author
11 years ago
I forgot to mention that I have had a devil of a time establishing echinacea and rudbeckia in my garden. They either die soon after planting, get aster yellows or, like now, failure to return in the spring.

I have lost many Rudbeckia fulgida, R. triloba and Echinacea 'Rubinstern' and 'Pow Wow Wild Berry', including plants purchased and those started by me from seed.

In fact, the only echinacea I have which seems to be doing well is 'Milkshake', which I received last summer as a freebie from Avant Gardens. It is sprouting vigorously and appears to have expanded in girth.

If these were not long blooming plants that are attractive to pollinators, I don't think I would bother with them at all. Sheesh!
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diggerdee zone 6 CT
11 years ago
I was surprised that rudbeckia Goldsturm did not come back for me. This is one that people swear will take over the world, but I lost it. Well, actually, the weird thing is, I planted this literally 12 years ago or so. One of the first plants I ever planted. It grew and bloomed for about two years, then that was it. But, even now, 12 years later, I still get about two or three leaves that come up, but no buds or blooms and it hasn't spread in all those years. It's in an area slated to be redone, so I've never bothered with replanting, but I'm always amused by those two or three leaves.

I've also lost a few hostas, which is really puzzling to me!

And luckily, I did try - as a beginning gardener - I did try to plant chameleon plant (houttuynia - sp?) THREE times and all three times it died.... thank goodness! Now I know better and do a bit more research before planting, but I am really grateful for that failure!

Dee
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
11 years ago
Spring has not come back yet, and that surprises me. I won't know if any plants didn't come back until we start hitting 60F.

tj
hostaholic2 z 4, MN
11 years ago
I'm with tsugajunkie. Spring has not even come for a visit yet and I have 8 inches of new snow on the ground from today.Nothing has come back yet.
Wayne Reibold
11 years ago
Add another to the list that can't get echinacea to come back, tried it a few years, NONE ever came back, I finally gave up (too much $$ for an "annual") but I sure love the look of them, especially the orange ones.

I have about a 95% success rate with Rudbeckia Goldstrum coming back year after year.

I'm hit and miss on Snowcap Shasta Daisy, have lost a few here and there with about 2/3 coming back again and again.
splitrock
11 years ago
I have several of the Pow Wow ecinacea coming back. This is a first for me after many attempts. One thing I did differently was that i created a berm about 6 inches in height of soil mixed with ground pine bark fines ( sold as soil conditioner at Lowes). I Also planted them as early as I could get them and removed all the flowers they came with when I planted them. I lost three out of ten, but they died in August of some kind of fungul disease.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
11 years ago
I lost three out of ten, but they died in August of some kind of fungul disease.

It is definitely not unusual to have health and or performance issues with coneflowers...read the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: No more coneflowers for me