Thanks Ken for your response. I'm sorry I'm not perfect. Just so you know, I DO now how to properly mix bug spray with the correct amount of water. Secondly, I've only lived there a a year and a half, so I'm by no means an expert at planting. So I"ll plant them further away in the future. I had a tractor dig up 6 feet tall hedges from the same bed, though I admit they are not the same kind of plant, so I can't expect the same results. Although I do have another shrub of the same kind in the back yard not next to any concrete and it looks like it has been eaten as well. My wife wanted them planted close because we had flowers planted in front of them. I will do it differently next time. As for weather, we had a fairly mild winter. I'm uploading a pic (that isn't great quality) but it is showing one of the prints in the bed and in the yard. I still think deer are having their way with them, even though yes, my location of planting and conditions could have a say in it. It looks like a hoof print to me, rather than an armadillo digging, of which I've seen many. I used to live in Texas and we had them all over. If leaves are dying, that's one thing, but I'm not seeing that many leaves on the ground around the shrubs. I'm seeing leaves missing. This post was edited by joshsimpson79 on Fri, Apr 12, 13 at 15:27

In my yard one large crepe mrytle (even though much smaller ones in pots closer to the house are fine) has not leafed out as well as a neem tree and all my vitex and lorapetalum. I lost a total of two salvia which surprised me since I planted many right before the frost and they were pushing my zone a bit. All the other perennials are leafing out again and looking lovely despite this cruel heat and not a drop of rain. It's always a challenge isn't it? Adele

bvt2007... umm where are you located at? For us, by those definitions, "Blackberry Winter" would be appropriate - they were beginning or in bloom (depending on the various patches)... the Dogwoods bloomed here on my property and surrounding "locale" ahead of the Redbuds by at least a week and a half, probably closer to two weeks, then the Redbuds came on (right along with the forsythia) even as the Dogwood blooms persisted. Normally, for right here on the hill, the Dogwoods and Redbuds wouldn't have bloomed until mid-April, but they were kicking it in late February and all through March respectively. April had the Dogwood flowers persisting even while the Redbuds were transitioning to the next phase of growth. Those of us on the hill were concerned then about it, fearing what losses would be because we would inevitably get a cold snap. I don't think any of us expected temps as low as they were for the three days that most others also experienced. From what I'm reading on this thread, there seems to be a fair amount of variation from one garden/property to another as to what weathered through without a hitch and what got hit hard. All of my Oaks... the old Oaks... it looks like late Fall/early Winter again. I hope they have the reserves to leaf out again. The leaves, unlike some others I read about here, still had a lot of growing to do - MAYBE at 1/5th their full size, less in most cases. I worry especially for those that were already compromised but have continued to leaf out each year even when I expected they would just die - this might have been Mother Nature's "purging" for those, as if to tell them it was okay to go to sleep forever. While blueberry blossoms were struck - I think that might be a blessing in disguise. The bushes on the property here have given me bumper crops year after year instead of the "normal" pattern of high yield year, low yield year, high yield year, low yield year, and so on. I kept waiting to see when they would finally take a break. MAYBE with the cold snap coinciding with blossoming for some of them, they will have a break from production this year. Of course I assume that bumper crop production has taxed them too much, though they might be so healthy that that is why they could "afford" to do what they did for all these years. They were in need of pruning and suckers taken up, etc. though so maybe when they recover and I can see where there's new growth, I will actually get that trimming and maintenance done for them this year. I'm sure glad that most of my Brugmansia were still indoors, if nothing else. Don't think I could bear having to start over with those AGAIN... IrisAddict - Thank You so much for starting this thread. That freeze, was precisely what put me totally in the dumps on whether or not to even bother going to the swap in May and now that I know I was far from alone in the losses I feel.. well, not so alone. (Misery loves company?) I won't have as many ready-to-go started plants to offer, but I'll surely have at least some seedlings (resowing in cups) and if not already rooted, at least cuttings of some things to bring - and for other things I'll probably bring seeds so that folks can opt to sow for themselves. And it looks like the Fall swap might be even better since so many of us had the losses we did this Spring. So I'm already planning to attend that one as well. :) Trying to see a silver lining... Hermit

Update: Eucalyptus deglupta that I raised several dozen of and only this past winter I planted 6 of them into the ground at an elevation of around 150 m above sea level, into a poor "soil". They did not grow too large in their pots over the past 5 years. After clearing an acre or so of shrubby woods with an excavator I was struggling to find some soil to purchase in order to cover the field. The soil I covered it with by just a barely a foot or so is very poor and has a lot of volcanic "gravel" in it mostly, stones and clay. It is dug up from down deep so it has got no organic matter yet. Finally the 6 x "Arcoiris" (Rainbow Eucalyptus) are in the ground and are slowly growing. Some showing deep, red foliage and some green foliage. The bark is still mostly light brown with some opened up patches of light green. They should show more colour when the trunks grow to at least 10-15 cm thickness if they will have tropicals colours here at all. Will see how their bark will look after several more years, whether all brownish and light green or will show some more tropical colours such as orange, red and especially blue. I will post an update then and now here are some photos of the pot-grown ones after 5 years (they grow very slowly in the pots): Anyone growing these in Portugal or Spain please post up close photos of the bark of larger E.d. (Eucalypto arcoiris) trees if possible.