Haha Stinging Nettle in my houseplant! But you guys know about that one already.

I seemed to have lost most of my lupines as well. I think it was because of the lack of snow cover. I have one little Buddleia that has been suffering along for years. Most of the branches are dead, but there are still a few that are now budding out.
My good suprises are my boxwood, which is just growing wonderfully, and all the little aquilegea that are popping up everywhere. And the hollyhocks that I did not plant.

Mmmmm - sorry to hear about the Lupins and Buddelia among others. May I suggest that next year, if you decide to replace your lupins this year (BTW they grow very easy from seed)- cover these plants with a good pile of leaves for insulation. Buddelia bushes can be cut down to the ground each year and will regrow the next year.
My happy surprise was the lack of bulbs dug up by the squirrels this year but that might have something to do with the neighbours feeding birds on both sides of me and probably the squirrels too!

Regarding your lupins, you're probably treating them TOO well. The best lupins we have are growing wild, some in the road gravel near the ditch at the side of our property and some in the gravel at the edge of our paved parking lot. They self seed regularly. When I lived in Montreal I tried to grow lupins but they died. I think the summer was just too hot for them and the soil was so rich that it held too much moisture over the winter into spring. Those that didn't die in the first summer rotted in the first spring. They like life cool and in the rough.

These Lupins were three years old and were doing really well. We just had a crappy winter with lots of really cold temps and no snow cover. For the most part things that were mulched well made it and things that weren't did not make it. The Lupins and Stachys are not fussy so I didn't mulch them - I figured the snow would be good enough, like in past years - except we didn't get enough...

These Lupins were all seed grown, so it's no big deal to get some more seeds and start new ones. Same with the Buddleia - fairly easy to grow from seed, but a pain that I have to start over!

I wish my squirrels would just stick to what the neighbours give them! Lilies and Alliums are routinely chomped, and last year they decided they were going to start in on the Cannas too. Last year I had some success with a paste made from vaseline and blood meal - I spread it on the sprouts and flower buds. Nasty stuff, but I got to see some of my Alliums bloom for the first time ever :-)

Another surprise today - I usually use a sharpie to write the plant names on the labels so I know what's what as I haul the pots around. Last fall I redid a lot of them because the sharpie ink had faded after several years. I couldn't find my sharpie so I used a china marker. Bad idea - it all came off over the winter and I can't tell what's in lots of my pots yet! Oh well, it'll be obvious soon!

BP

BP,
So sorry to hear about your Butterfly Bush and Lupines. I'm sure you'll see them again in your gardens being the green thumb you are. :O)

I'm happy with quite a few things this year. The plants which made me jump the highest were the Blue Himalayan Poppies. Looks like they perennialized and have returned for a 4rth year. Last year was their first year flowering and they were spectacular!

Another happy-joy-joy moment was when I saw the Lynchis Lumina Red Shades peeking up. These were winter sown last year. They appeared to struggle in the containers all summer long, but in the fall, I took a chance and planted them. Looked pitiful! Figured they were compost, but the other day I noticed these bright burgundy/wine/red things poking out of the ground and realized that the buggers had made it. Party!!!!

I'm anxious to see some second and third year perennials flower for the first time. Amsonia, Baptisia Australis, Meadowsweet and a few new-to-me Digitalis.

My biggest disappointment so far has been the deers. The population is exploding on the Prospect Peninsula and there is no hunting allowed due to the proximity to homes. Usually, 40% of the herds die in the winter, but we had such a mild winter with no snow that biologists are saying there was virtually no deaths this winter... They are already coming by every night and devouring what has simply grown during the day. Not good for a gardener.

And so, I am starting to discover what is deer resistant and planting LOTS of those!! :O)

Bonnie I've found my lupines to be a short lived perennial which unless let go to seed disappear year four with the exception of those I dug up in the wild, the ordinary purple ones.
Here is a picture from two years ago ,I now can find only six returning.

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Nicole I can relate...can you believe we now have deer grazing in downtown L'burg? M

Upon crossing the ferry at Arrow Lake and heading to Nakusp last year for a little hot springs holiday, both sides of HWY 6 in the ditches were solid with lupines. They looked wonderful. Sweet Rocket (dames rocket, hesperis, whatever) grows wild in glorious abundance here. A wonderful time of year.

You know, as much as I hate my squirrels, I'll take them any day over deer!!!!

I'm just going to have to restart some more lupins and get in the habit of starting a couple of new pots every year just to keep up with the die-off.

Beautiful pic Mora! Tiffy - I have found that seed grown perennials never take off until the following year. I have two sorts of Lychnis and both were so close to being tossed the first fall - they looked like they'd never be worth the trouble of overwintering them. Glad I proved myself wrong :-)

BP

Hi BP:

Sadly we lost a couple of Eucalyptus trees. They are borderline here anyway and the past winter was the worst one that I can remember. They grow pretty quickly, so I may replace them to get their awesome folige colour back.

A big (and disappointing) surprise was losing all our Clematis Montana vines. I thought they were indestructible, I was wrong.:-( The largest was 20+ years old and covered an entire deck. This will be a tough one to replace.

On the positive side, the dogwoods are amazing this year, especially the pink flowering variety. The Rhodos are happy as it has been very wet here the past few months. Also, many lilies look great, a few should be flowering very soon.

Looking forward to some real sun soon, we have had only two days so far this year that have reached the AVERAGE temperature for that day, all others have been below, often several degrees. It looks like we may go directly from winter to summer, we really have not had any spring.

Cheers,
MG

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I was given some burgundy lupin seeds last year and I started them in my greenhouse but they did not germinate. Was I suppose to do something with the seeds before I planted them. They were so pretty in the garden last year I am really disappointed they didn't grow this year.

MG - that's awful - to lose a Clematis of that age! They should be plenty hardy enough to tolerate this past "cold" winter. They must have had some sort of disease that weakened them :-( Maybe they'll come back from the roots...

It's been cold here too, but we have at least had a few unusually warm days. We almost got snow last week (some nearby areas did), and the week before it was 29C. Poor plants are not growing much!

zwoddle - Some hybrid seeds are sterile. Some Lupin seeds won't germinate without nicking the seed, and some won't germinate without a cold period. Most are easy as pie. There's no real way of knowing beforehand if your seeds will be fussy or not. Since your seeds would have been from a hybrid, there's no guarantee they would have looked like the parent anyway.

BP

I had a surprise. Lost two deciduous azaleas. What surprised me most was the foxtail lily (eremurus), I planted it 3 years ago, it bloomed the following year and last year nothing. I was sure I lost it. Only a week ago I noticed shoots coming. There are several stems rising so it didn't die after all. I would have expected it to have some growth even if it didn't bloom.

I can not seem to grow eremurus, it must be too wet in my yard. Amazing plants, I really wish I could get some to grow.

BP - I do not think it was a disease problem, the local nursery guy reports dozens of people in the area lost their Clematis Montanas. Even more strange, it seems the (rarer) white flowering variety was not affected, just the pink flowering varieties were done in (my double pink was also doa :-(. Probably by the extremely long, weird winter we had this year. I have one single pink to plant as a volunteer popped up in one of my tropical pots that had been on the porch all last summer.

Pleasent surprise is having my martagon lily bloom (just opening today) this year. These seem to be quite difficult to establish, hopefully it will stick around for a while.

Actually this is probably the best our garden has looked since we started a few years ago ;-)

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