This past spring I lost my anise hyssop. I have no idea how either. I hear people comment that they can be invasive, but my Michigan winter killed it!

I sure do...first off...this is the midwest..winters can be killers...especially the last few...we have not had the snow cover we should have to protect the roots from the cold spells.

And my second worse kill off reason.. a MALE bichon..who loves to water anything that is half his height...which isn't very tall! :) He is vicious to my hostas and coral bells. I have fence guards everywhere...I love him dearly..but I sure don't appreciate his watering efforts. I also have trouble here keeping jacobs ladder alive threw one winter to next spring for some reason. I tried again this spring..we will see if it reappears next spring or not..its pretty and lush right now..but he doesnt like our winters apparently.

LOL- Yes, my three orange wonderful tabbys that I completely adore are constantly digging, peeing, and causing chaos in the garden. I think maybe here in Virginia it is the heat/humidity that does things in, but I am not sure. I am just feeling depressed about the fact that I lose things and I don't know why. Like I said with the digitalis, I have such a hard time keeping those guys happy and I thought they were supposed to be easy! Christopher Lloyd says you should use it as an opportunity to buy a new plant, so maybe I need an attitude adjustment!

Does Christopher L own a nursery perhaps? :) Maybe this is a giant conspiracy to keep nurseries alive? :) Just kidding...I don't know about any of you, but I have spent a fortune over the years.

One thing I did do this year as a experiment..is buy some stock from a nursery that ONLY purchases the plants that are locally grown and raised....now..that greatly reduced my choices...not nearly as much variety..but I am experimenting to see if it means less loss from weather ect....next spring will be the real test....I wonder sometimes if all the beautiful things at nurseries are so touchy because they are grown in ideal conditions and when faced with real zonal highs and lows, if maybe they are just too affected by them..

Does brain matter count? I'm hoping not my brand new blueberry's.... Yes I lose things, mostly at the work gardens which is still fairly new.

I lose things all the time, but I'm such a lazy slacker that I have no right to complain. I am learning what's unkillable, though!

A friend and I were just discussing this ... When I first started I did get upset at loosing things because I felt like the loss took away from look of garden and also my time, back and pocketbook. .. but I have learned that it is inevitable and now I figure I only want plants that are hardy ...gardening is time consuming enough without constantly babysitting certain plants. Some say phlox is easy to grow but it does not seem to like me ...I just lost one that has been in the ground for months and there is another one 2ft from it alive and fine ...no way to explain it ...oh yea one of my lambs ear died too ...I am wondering if ants are not nesting under the plants killing them ????

Interesting- it is always so interesting to me that some plants thrive for some people and not for others. When I started gardening three years ago, I put in all the things I wanted, regardless of their likes/dislikes. Of course, after spending a fortune on delphinium that all promptly died, I realized I have to work more towards my climate. OUtside of DC, it is insanely humid in the summer but the dahlias thrive here, so I have tried to put in things that grow well here, rather than what I want. I still lose things, however, but hopefully it will be less and less. I guess it is inevitable that you will lose things, I just wish I always knew why. No idea why my foxgloves are all rotting and dying. Do they not like excessive moisture? Not to mention, a TON of my things didn't bloom this year- bearded iris, daylilies. No idea why. It is the unknowns that drive me crazy. If I knew what to fix, then I wouldn't feel so frustrated!

Hi Threeorange

Boy- that IS frustrating!

NJ must be the garden state indeed beause even though there are many attempts on my plants' lives... they never fully die.

The only thing that I actually deemed dead was 2 years ago- a rose got eaten underground by voles.. Oddly enouhg- I waa too lazy to pull our the pathetic stump for a year and a half and lo and behold this spring- the darn thing grew back!
I thought I killed a few things a few times- and they come back- in time for me to have another near death experience. But dont feel bad- the look terrible once this dang humidity causes mildew and the jap beetles eat everythign in sight.
Wait- wait- a neighbor of mine did step on a pathetic lavendar that was nearly dead in a bad location so I had moved it to the new spot. apparently not the best relocation - he stepped on it and did it in. it did not come back!

OH- and if digitalis is foxglove- I've never had luck with it. Once again this year- it was a no show. My neighbor has lots and she is gonna give me some seeds. Try try again

By the way- did you recently transplant the lillies or irises? I dug all around my day lillies planting daffodils in fall and I am sure i disturbed some roots. and they didnt bloom much at ALL this year becasue of it!!
Now some irises i transplanted 2 autumns ago- last spring they did nothing- 1 pathetic bloom- this year... 42 blooms.

So just wait! :) Maybe all the dead plants you have arent even dead? Get lazy maybe and leave them and see if they come back.LOL. they usually do for me.

For me, it's been pampas grass. The last two years it has absolutely thrived after it was planted, but then it hasn't returned for me the following spring. I know it isn't our climate, because the lady next door has some and it's been there forever. There is also a house not too far from here that has planted it all along their property line as a privacy fence and it thrives and multiplies. i'm trying it again this year and praying for better results!

I put agyranthemum (those little annual daisies) in this year, and I kept loosing them. Replaced them, they still turned yellow, wilted, then died! Had them in the ground with petunias and salvia. Maybe they didn't like as much water as the petunias? Don't know, but I'm not doing those again, although I love the taller pink ones! Actually, that's what I'm doing today is replacing those with pentas. Difficult to find much around here in July, without driving to KC.

Dianne

I guess we all have our "problem plants" that won't grow for us. Somehow, I have to learn to be more philosophical.I hope next year, my iris put on a real show! I'll let you know if they do!

That's funny, I wondered what the name threeorangeboys meant. We've got an orange tabby that my husband and I are always arguing (not seriously) whether he's yellow or orange. I need to hold him up to a color chart one day.

I lose plants every year. Propagating plants myself takes a lot of the heart and pocketbook ache out of losing plants.

If I could ever figure out how to post a photo, I would post a photo of my three wonderful orange boys!
Yes, that is the conclusion I am coming to- that you need to grow a lot from seed so the heartache of losing things at least doesn't cost so much.
The latest is my Rockcress (aubretia?)- I started it from seed two years ago and it was beautiful this year. Big patch of pink blossoms. It has died back without a trace. Is it gone or just completely hibernating? I don't usually think of things dying back that completely. Maybe it is a shortlived perennial?

I lose Monkshood and Jacob's Ladder every year :(

Not sure what I do wrong with those two, but I am starting to get offended.

Yes and you know what I really hate. When I buy something marked "perennial" and then after buying it and bringing it home and planting it and growing it and liking it and then it doesn't come back. I find out "Oh it isn't really a perennial it is a "Short lived" perennial and it usually dies and you have to think of it as an annual!!! Duh! Well then why do they call it a perennial in the first place!!! That happened with my Gaura, my Galliardia, and my Belles Perennis or at least if I remember that's what they were called. I am new at growing perennials so I am more careful now when I go shopping and I know a little more but they are marked perennial and the zone is marked to include zone 6 and then you find out they die! Doesn't seem right to me. I lose things all the time anyway too though. Mother Nature is a tough girl sometimes.

My marbles