lets see.. what can we include in the equation?? how mild was the easy year??? was this winter worse than last ???? is it potted?? ... forcing growth thru ferts???? was there relative drought prior to the bad years??? ... even well cared for... they could have gone into winter in various states of readiness .... interesting there is the same damage on the understock plant ... this winter i presume .... i would have thought.. the wire would have made it worse ... how could it have made it better???? whats the bud at 6 oclock at the bottom of the pic ... understock probably .... no snow cover??? ... i always thought CO was buried in winter snow ... probably a mountain thing ... anyway ... i have never figured out definitive answers to damage at any particular time.. as there are so many variables... its simply impossible to narrow the focus down.. to any one or two variables as to the cause ... i am thinking i was looking at something you sent me this morning... but it was to early to focus on the name tag ... lol ... ken

Hi Lori, I put my plants in the pot directly into the ground..see picture. I don't have a large enough area to plant them all in the ground, for them spreading and for light. The actual plants that will stay in the ground are about 36" apart, but right now have some in-between. If the leaves and plants get too big..(HOPE) will take some in the pots and put them on my patio.. I can't move them forward, that area gets hot west sun. In the back I have 4 directly into the ground, one near the scarecrow is Celidine, accross there are in the ground. Read also that the pots in the ground do not dry out as quickly, can take water from the ground..think. I still need edging to hold back the grass. Now, feel if another 30 mi burst of wind comes, they will stay. Karen B

I am a fabricator. It distresses me when someone goes thru an experience like yours because the stone supplier or fabricator did not accurately communicate the material properties of a particular stone. In my shop we make CERTIAN a customer knows the properties of a stone they are considering including signing off on the details because we don't want that unhappy customer coming back a few months down the road. "soft quartzite " doesn't exist. If it's soft (and etches) it's marble and has all the performance deficiencies marble is known for. with Real quartzite is so hard it's a challenge to process in the fab shop which is part of the reason it's considerably more expensive. For your application the only long term option is to replace the top with any one of hundreds of options in natural stone that will hold up to your planned use with little or no maintenance.

while someone else has bumped this... A few (mostly unfortunate) updates. The Nerium and Callistemon probably would have survived if they had been better established, but they had been planted the prior spring. Although they appeared alive and had some green leaves and stems, they went into that slow, curious decline of winter damaged plants and were dead by mid-June. I might have been too stingy in watering them. The Phlomis died back in early summer, making me wonder if it will be a 'spring ephemeral' in this climate. Same with the Gardenias OTHER THAN 'Kleim's Hardy', which for me at least, does appear to be the hardiest. (though, again, cannot rule out other factors. It has the most protection from winter sunlight, so maybe that is what is making the difference. Winter morning sun here is deadly to all but the hardiest camellias, for example.) There were OTOH some 'surprise' survivals, discovered after the thread above. One I can remember is Manettia cordifolia 'John Elsley', which survived its second winter, colder than the last. But getting it to regrow fast enough to have much of an ornamental impact is going to be the catch. It might make more sense to have a big patch of it and think of it more as a clambering ground cover, in this climate. It will bloom Sept-Nov. Interesting that a rosemary was totally undamaged in a winter I have no doubt would have killed an 'Arp' or 'Hill Hardy', which are clearly not the hardiest in an east coast climate. (maybe they are in TX where they were selected) I think the one that did well is 'Blue Spire'. I don't like the taste of rosemary, I just grow them for ornament! They are the quintessential Mediterranean climate shrubs. Oh another one: an Agave lechuguilla was right on the brink, but is growing back vigorously. I really need to start keeping more notes LOL. Too many plants to keep track of! The Toona has grown back to a monstrous size so it will be interesting to see if it survives on top this winter. Not winter cold related, but interesting to report that a potted Telopea truncata has survived, in shade, this beastly hot AND HUMID summer. We've had the longest stretches of high dewpoints > 75F I can remember. It's been the most acutely damaging to plants since 2012, probably. I lost a couple desirable rhododendrons that were not fully established. I am likewise struck that both clones of 'extra hardy' Phormium are doing well so far. I think because they are in well drained soilless mixes. In a garden setting in my climate, will need a south slope both for winter warmth and for summer drainage. (they will get summer root rot...I suspect the reason they are not seen along the gulf coast, for example) I will always keep 'backup plants' in my garage in case another winter like 1994 happens...but the green clone has survived near 0F with no special protection.