My Jack Frost has been blooming for a couple weeks and up long before that. Hard to believe all your brunneras died. Are they in a particularly wet area?

In rich soil covered with wood chips. Two of them were on their 3rd season the Jack frost was it's first winter.

Mine have not appeared- and there is no trace of them any where- At least when the foxglove ALL died- they left corpses- Do you think moles or slugs or disease may have eaten them up?
Julie

I have lost my Brunnera also, nice round empty spot...

One was up a couple of weeks ago (late) and is blooming normally. The other just appeared in the last few days and is very small compared to the plant's size last year. Both are the standard macrophylla, heartleaf brunnera. I lost some of the strangest things this year. Squirrels and raccoons are suspects as some plant locations have indentations, but some are just plain dead crowns. I lost nearly everything that was planted quite late in the season - lots of lily bulbs and several iris. Mid September was just too late, I guess, for them to get a proper start in their new home. Won't do that again.

I have two with solid green leaves (don't know their name) and they came up and bloomed. I had three Jack Frost, just planted last fall, and they haven't shown their faces at all. I bought three more to replace them from our local nursery last week. Then today, I was at a nursery in Fargo, that I think is more trustworthy because they grow all their own stock, and they told me that Jack Frost has not been reliably hardy. So, if you are in the cold part of zone 4 (as I am) or if you put them in a cold spot in your yard (as I did), they may not have survived.

Bummer.

Lily digger I posted on the iris forum recently because I lost so many iris this winter, and usually I don't. The consensus seemed to be that the early warm weather, then very cold, may have allowed to much snowmelt and water accumulation. Along with the idea that maybe not all the mail order varieties are hardy enough. I have only lost irises once before, and this winter I lost about half of the new ones and a couple of old ones. Even those that survived aren't shooting out a lot of new growth and buds.

Bummer again.

Ann

Jack Frost is less cold hardy than green and most other varigated forms. I am thinking the drier soil mine is in over the winter has something to do with its survival.

Rick

Ann -
Your point about out-of-state is right on. Most of what was planted late came from mail order (that is why it was planted later) and the lack of success may have had as much to do with the source as the date and weather. They were in good condition when planted, though. My iris were all planted on a slope and it was mostly the ones on the lower end that didn't make it. Thanks for the info - I was pretty bummed, but hadn't really looked at all the possible reasons. The good news is some are blooming first year, so that's a treat.

Lily

P.S. Some losses were from a pair of Mallards making a path through my iris garden from my itty-bitty fountain pool to the neighbors bird feeder. Gotta love em. Sigh...

I agree that the warm winter weather must have caused problems with bulbs and fleshy rooted plants- Most of my loss was under ice "lakes" due to the Feb thaw of the upper snow and ground.
I am suprised though that mid Sept plantings might be suspect. I thought that for us in zone 4 and city 4+ that mid way through October was still reliably safe. What is considered a safe date by others?
I know my up to November purchases were sunk into the ground in their pots- and all made it except some lily scales and bulblets (although I have not pitched them yet)- even Rozanne came back.
I am very curious if I have been way off the mark (on late plantings that is) for, well- ever I guess-
Thanks-
Julie

Iris definately need to be planted sooner to establish roots. I found that out the hard way!

I have lost a lot of perennials that I buy at end of season sales and plant any time after mid august. I simply have quit doing it and it's hard because many mail order places won't ship things during the heat of the summer and they start shipping again in September. I get irises in the ground by the first week of August and other perennials by the second week. The only exception for me is Peonies which I usually beg the shipper to send by September.
Jack Frost Brunnera is up and blooming for me but only 1 of 2 that I planted last June. The one in a raised bed died so it must have been the cold for me not the drainage. I just planted Looking Glass- we'll see if it's any hardier.

That fits with what I experienced. The iris I bought at the Arb iris sale were in the ground by the middle of August and I lost virtually none of those. Sales, so hard to pass up... I finally just canceled one order last fall because they kept notifying me of delays and would have ended up shipping way too late for me.

By the way, I'm in clay soil. It may be that it cools more quickly and stays cooler in the fall compared to sandier soils. Might that make a difference in a plant's ability to get established before winter? I know it takes a lot longer to warm in the spring.

Thanks for asking, Julie. I'm really interested in what others are experiencing in this regard.

Lily

I brought this thread back up because just yesterday as I was planting some new perennials - I found one of my Jack Frosts! Two itty bitty tiny leaves had emerged. So, one survived, but is very very very slow to emerge. We'll see if it goes through this summer if it can do any better next spring. but it gives me hope for the additional ones I purchased this spring.

I had one macrophylla make it and bloom, and Jack Frost has been up and running for sometime. The macrophylla near the house, which had been there for 2-3 years, did NOT come back, nor did "Looking Glass". Both started to come up in early April and got hit by the frost. I guess that was enough to do them in!

Lynn

Hi there,

This is the first time I've tried to grow a Brunnera. I planted mine early this spring & now it has a nice healthy clump of leaves. I am wondering if it will flower though. It is in a shady/dappled sun spot in my woodland border. I know it liked water a lot when I first planted it. It would droop politely to remind me if I forgot to water it. It seems like there are tiny baby leaves forming under it. Is this normal? I live in Zone 6--will it overwinter if I cover it with a deep leaf mulch? The leaves themselves are lovely, but it sure would be nice to see this plant bloom this year. It's a brunnera macrophylia.

My new Brunnera was planted in mid summer and I thought it was a goner, but it did finally pop up. I think they really nead a lot of water, as the more I water the nicer it looks. However, I don't know if it's going to be successful for me in the long run...because I don't like watering that much!
I wanted to mention the iris. On December 24, I discovered that Menards had clearance on their iris...75 cents a package. The same on a bunch of tulips.
I decided to try it as the price was worth it...for experimenting, if nothing else! The tulips I planted right away and most did not make it.
The iris were in packaged in plastic bags with that soiless mix...peat, I think. I just left them in the packages in one of the cooler rooms in our house. My fear was that they would rot. You'd think that the minute spring had sprung, I would have popped them out of there, but I was preoccupied with other things and didn't get them opened until 2 days ago! THey are perfectly nice. They have developed quite a bit of fine roots and are showing a nearly white shoot, but I think they're going to make it. I plan to set them out in late July. I'm going on a trip for the first 15 days, so I figured they've survived this long, they'll make it 15 more days until I have time to plant them and baby them a bit.
I also had a lot of iris from my garden that I transplanted in November and most of them survived but did not bloom. I think they'll probably bloom next year, if I get the mulch of their tops! Also, I have found iris literally sitting on the top of the garden mulch after an entire winter...and still alive. The same during summer. Once I had iris in an undrainable container for nearly a whole summer...I got them out by August and planted them...they didn't bloom the next year, but the one after, they did. Basically, I have been unable to kill an iris despite incredible neglect!