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Quite a successful WSing year for me :-)

16 years ago

That snow we got in February was a blessing. Because of it, I didn't lose any existing plants and I'm beginning to think it is what I have to thank for so many blooms of things that previously didn't work for me at all. I have more sprouts this year from things that didn't do anything at all the 2 previous years (which were Winters with less snow and both times we had early Springs)

Lady's Mantle

Coral Bells "Palace Purple"

Butterfly Flower "Gay Butterflies"

Hostas (True Blue and On Stage...thanks to Cheryl :-)

Butterfly Bush

Gaillardia (earlier, MUCH earlier sprouts than last year!)

It's been a cool Spring and I wonder if that has anything to do with it as well. Perhaps the perennials like that extended period of cool weather before the heat hits?

Linda

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Comments (3)

tiffy_z5_6_can
16 years ago
Linda, there's much to be said for snow cover that's for sure!! I lost a whole bunch of plants on top of a section of a rock wall which I will have to fix. I had some winter sown trailing dianthus cascading over the rocks for a width of 4 feet and they are all gone. The creeping phlox suffered really badly as well.

We had but one storm which gave us a good snowfall, but it disappeared a couple of days later. Other than that, it was a dry windy winter. Next year I'll be covering with spruce boughs.

Glad to hear something good came out of all that snow for you!! Thought you'd still be in an igloo state by this time. :O)
kqcrna
16 years ago
I'm glad, too, Linda that you had a good year. You certainly deserve some benefit from all that snow.

Overall, I think my germination was lower than last year, but still a worthwhile effort. Now if I could just get it all in the ground and keep my night time visitor from hell from killing everything.

Karen
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lblack61
Original Author
16 years ago
Tiffy,
That Dianthus sounds amazing! I know that's going to be missed :-(
Karen,
I wonder if you have voles? They make it quite a battle for me with putting things in the ground. I did the orange peel thing and it seemed to stave off my cats and the voles-- which the cats should be hunting and don't. I lost three successive plantings of Monarda one year in one week. Every time I planted the seedlings, the voles sucked them under, leaving little trace of their presence, and no plant. They did the same to my basil.

I misspoke when I said, "blooms of things that previously didn't work for me at all".
I meant to say "sprouts" not "blooms". Not much is blooming yet because the weather has been mostly under 65 degrees.

I'm thinking that I'll have to pull out some kind of protection for all plants, every fall since we don't get dependable, continual snow cover like we used to. We could have no snow at the WRONG time and then, like a lot of people experienced this past winter, lose tons of est. plants. That would make me cry.

Linda

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