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october_gardens

This year's late freeze/frost survivors.

October_Gardens
7 years ago

After yet another mild Winter (now lows below 10F), ALL of my H macs and serratas had healthy buds and no dieback going into breaking of dormancy. The only problem is breaking of dormancy in Feb-March. There was a low of 16 in late March and a low of 27.7 in early April, which abruptly killed about 60% of these buds. Fortunately, this year there were many old wood bud survivors. Here's my list!

Stand-outs:
Lady in Red (serrata) - absolutely zero!
Purple Tiers (serrata) - next to zero!
Coerulea (serrata) - next to zero!
Tuff Stuff (original and Red) - next to zero!
Everlasting Harmony - 40% dieback
Lime Lovebird - 20% dieback
ES Bloomstruck - 10-30% dieback
F&E Summer Lace - 20-40% dieback
Edgy Orbits - 10-30% dieback

Honorable mentions (40-70% dieback):
F&E Peppermint
Wedding Ring
ES Twist N Shout
Let's Dance Rhythmic Blue (very close to ES Original)
ES Original
Penny Mac
David Ramsey
Nikko Blue
Peppermint Swirl
Charme (sheltered location)
Merritt's Supreme (sheltered location)
F&E Early Sensation (sheltered location)


Near complete dieback:
All other Let's Dance Series
All other Everlasting Series
ES Blushing Bride
Pretty much everything else

(there are a ton that can bloom from completely new growth alone, and they've been mentioned on this forum numerous times)

Note: If you're between zones 5-7 or get a lot of late season freezes I wouldn't really consider growing too much else than plants listed in brackets 1-2 in medium to large spaces. The ones that would have new growth alone you should only expect to see them grow 1-4' in a single season, depending on the cultivar.



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