Interesting thread, Ginny. So sorry about your phlox falling victim to woodchucks!

I guess I miss my tiger lilies most, but now I'm hoping that the parasitic wasps that were released across New England will arrive here to rescue them. (Ha! Imagine hoping for something with the name of 'parasitic wasp' to arrive!) My shriveled and ailing tiger lilies are the canaries in the coal mine for now. If the red lily beetle-eating wasps restore my lilies to their former state of health, I will re-adopt my former plan to invest in other (true) lilies.

I would also say that I have missed my purple lupine that thrived around our house until about year 2000 when they were dug up by necessity during the excavation for the new addition. My irises survived, but the lupine did not.

I attempted to re-establish lupine some years later and it was eaten by slugs. Now I'm cautiously optimistic. Two years ago I planted two lupines, one purple and one red. The purple one died out but the red one is thriving. This summer I planted another purple variety and it has done well, so I'm hoping my lupine has returned to me at long last. I have missed it immensely.

Spedigrees, have you ever winter sowed? I have found lupine to be one of the easiest to start from seed. I also find it easy to collect the seed from my own lupine and can start more whenever I want. So any time they do not do well and I want to increase them or replace them. I just winter sow a couple of containers and I'm all set.

I pulled out all my Bronze Fennel and all my Cosmos a few years ago and I am missing that some days. They weren't working at the time, but I have a place to try the Cosmos again at least.

I miss the Japanese Azalea I planted over 40 yrs. ago at my former house. It was named but long ago I lost the tag. It had the most beautiful blossoms, about 5-6 inches across, flat, and a deep watermelon pink, and had grown to about 4 ft across but only about a foot tall when we sold the house 10 years ago. Because I moved into an apartment, I didn't even consider trying to take a cutting to root.

I miss other plants from that house,too, but they are more commonly found. That house was in the woods and very shaded but now I have full sun garden, so some of my favorites would not work here anyhow.
Molie

Thanks for the advice, Prairiemoon. I did once try wintersowing both fireweed and spruce trees (in containers) but neither germinated. Then a year or so ago I attempted to wintersow the seeds from the pods on my red lupine in a patch of ground that I prepared near the mother plant, but again nothing germinated. :-(
I think I must be the kiss of death for wintersowing. However, in light of your success, I'm thinking I should try again this winter. I can always buy more plants next summer if it doesn't pan out.

I now have a healthy red lupine in one perennial bed and a purple one that appears to be thriving in the garden adjacent to it. But I'd love to have at least 3 or more of each variety. Does lupine spread by roots. I'm thinking they should reseed themselves as well, since they both have seed pods.

I've found that cosmos seem to like partial shade. Mine are in a location that gets a little full sun, but mostly dappled sun and they seem to love it. I save the seeds each year. I hope yours work out well in the new location you have for them.

I tried planting tall snapdragons with the cosmos this year, but they were disappointing. I'm thinking the snaps are not getting enough sun. I'll need a new location for them if I decide to try again next summer.

I miss my asiatic lilies - also victims of those darned beetles. Hoping those wasps let me re-experience their lovely perfume.

I also miss my hollyhocks. The Japanese beetles did a number on them a few years ago and with trees getting larger, the spot where I had them is no longer sunny, no longer the perfect place for them.

I have had lupines off and on - I can never predict when I am going to have a banner year but this wasn't one. I will definitely try winter sowing. I so love them!

I also miss the marsh forget me nots we had growing in our pond. They were a perennial form that were so gorgeous, bloomed a beautiful blue all summer, and added so much to our watergarden. They are now considered invasive and no longer can be purchased in MA. We had two pots in our koi pond that grew well for more than 5 years. Two years ago, they did not overwinter and I miss the cheerful blue blossoms along the side of our koi pond.

But the biggest hole in my heart is from the loss of my lavender variety bed, washed out by the floods this year. I had thirty plus different lavender varieties in my butterfly garden. We also lost half of our butterfly bushes but the loss of the lavender was the hardest, as that collection had taken years to put together.

Cathy (Northeast MA)

Wow, 30 varieties of lavender - I'm jealous!

I miss 2 annuals; 'Rocket Red' snapdragons and Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha). I usually plant them every year, but didn't find either of them locally this spring. Too bad, because the Salvia would have been really happy with all the heat we've had, and this time of year they'd have been a great color boost in my garden.

I miss my Irises. Years ago I lived in a house with horrible sandy soil. The only thing that grew there were Irises. I had hundreds of them. People in town would talk about the lady who lived behind the library and had thousands of irises. The house I live in now has nice loamy composty soil - and my Irises don't like it. At all.

So Marsh Forget-me-nots are considered invasive? We have a skating pond in the back yard. Last year I bought some special herbicide to kill of the cat-o-nine-tails and the purple loosestrife. Lo and behold, this year I have tons of forget-me-nots in bloom.

Wow, a pond - that must be nice.

The best reference for this is IPANE, the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England - and I don't see Myosotis palustris there, although other kinds of Forget-me-nots are certainly on the list, and they like damp conditions too.

But I hope you didn't kill the native cat-o-nine-tails, Typha latifolia! Depending on where you live, it might be protected as a food/habitat plant for native wildlife. ("narrow-leaved cattail (Typha angustifolia) is outperforming and replacing the native broad-leaved cattail (T. latifolia").

Here is a link that might be useful: IPANE

I have no idea what type of forger-me-nots showed up. They are pretty with blue flowers! And I have no idea what type of cat-o-nine tales I killed off. Though I do know we have conservation land on the other side of the river, and there is lots of cat-o-nine tails over there. (And I would much prefer the wildlife to stay on that side of the river!)

The pond is nice. But expensive. I never realized how much work was involved to keep it as a pond, and not allow it to become a swamp! The fish friendly herbicides cost a small fortune. And it really limits what other fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides you can use on your property - so you have to buy the fish friendly ones of those as well.

The pond has been having a tough year. We flooded back in the storms in March/April. The pond rose about 3-4 feet. All the runoff caused a fish kill. Then in early May, a 60' pine tree fell and landed in the pond. Which resulted in another fish kill. We had to have the tree removed, and the pond dredged from that. Now with the drought, the water level is a good foot below normal. Which means that it has lost it's normal inflow/outflow. So I'm not sure what type of impact that is going to have.

At this point, we think we have wiped out most of the invasive plants. And we are trying to restore native plantings. We're hoping to get a little dock built this fall - just a little platform to sit on and watch the fish, frogs, and turtles. And to have a nice place to sit to put your skates on.

vitex agnus castus- big shrub, nice blue/lavender spires v.late- aug/sept. Think it eventually got too waterlogged where it was.
best,
mindy

I'm surprised to hear that it's hardy in your area - I think it's marginal here. Mine (nominally zone 7) was killed to the ground a few years ago (2003?) but is back to full size; way too big for the spot it's in.

I do love that plant! Just finishing up flowering now.