WelI wouldn't expect you to have the same temperature...we don't live in the same place. :-) Although it was the coldest winter in Puget Sound in general in 32 years, the islands have "surround sound" ocean effect. So, Seattle had the coldest winter in 32 years and I live in Bellevue, 400 feet higher and inland. Our house runs 10 degrees higher and lower than Seattle. The ground was frozen solid 3-4" deep for months - that's never happened before. And yes it was wet, wet, wet. We got an extra 11 inches in November. So I'm not surprised - I was gambling on them - but I was hoping. So ok, if I shouldn't wait for it, I'll plant something else there. They weren't really thriving anyway...but it's still frustrating.

I am less than 20 miles away!! But agree that location will make a difference......I'm just not sure how much. The "coldest winter in 32 years" is a relative statement. Overall temperatures were a bit lower than normal (ergo the "coldest" designation) but there were no prolonged acute cold spells like there were in the winter of 07-08 or 1990, both of which wiped out a host of marginally hardy plants in this area. I had what are typically considered annuals here - snapdragons and zonal geraniums -overwinter easily in the ground.

This one being a cold one blew past me also. At the moment it is certainly nothing like the aftermath of 1990 (27 years ago) wherever I go, and I get around quite a bit. That year was a real herd thinner, at present I am seeing no scorched coast redwoods or tan-oaks, no frozen to the root crown Cordyline australis* and so on through the list. 1990 was a year when Hardy Hybrid rhododendrons, heathers, holly-leaf osmanthus and other stalwarts stood out for being not visibly damaged, whereas other commonly planted broad-leaved evergreens got hit. Even Fraser photinia, in many areas.

There is some of what is presumably cold damage to multiple different succulent plants apparent in what I call the gravel garden at McMenamin's Anderson School in Bothell. But it looks like they didn't necessarily choose only the most hardy kinds for this planting scheme.

*This very frequently planted, yet essentially tender plant appears due to its inherent nature in combination with its prevalence to serve as an excellent indicator of both short and long term weather conditions. With places where it is able to keep its top indefinitely, reach full development (broad based, branching trunks supporting crowns as much as 30 ft. or more tall) being thereby identified as having genuinely Californian conditions.

Well, ya'll, I didn't come here to argue with you about what my weather was, but if it's really that interesting, here's why: I'm up 400 feet and in a forest - it's colder than Bellevue proper and on average 10 degrees colder than Seattle in the winter. It's a *fact* that my ground was frozen several inches down for several months...whatever your experience may have been. It definitely wasn't my imagination - I have witnesses. I didn't lose nearly as much as I lost in the really big snow winter in the early 2000's, but I still suffered from the frozen ground plus the excessive wetness. And, in fact, my artichokes are indeed kaput. Most of the rest thanked me for the mulch and plowed through. Thanks for telling me about the artichokes!

I didn't grow any artichokes, but my neighbor always does. I'll ask him. His are in a high, sunny location with very good drainage.

I went through the winter exactly like you, mkirkwag. Cold for an extended period of time which froze the soil for several inches. That's more than any time in the last 38 years I've been here at 750 ft. SE of Seattle near Maple Valley.

This last winter was hard, not temperature wise but duration and two high wind events. One being as the arctic storm came through the Frasier River canon, the other being as it crossed the Cascades during the first week of March. The temperatures were 22° F for a half hour as the sun was coming up. I watched the thermometer as this was happening. It went back up to 27° fast. The rest of the three month duration of the cold event it never got below 27°. It was the cold winds and frozen ground that damage most of my plants. For example I have three Schefflera minutistellata planted where they experienced the full effect of the winds. They lost all their leaves. The stems and buds weren't damaged and now that the weather has warmed they are shooting new leaves. I have three others of this species in the wooded part of my lot that were protected by trees and shrubs. They showed no damage at all. I guess the point being it isn't just the lowest temperatures that cause problems, the duration, winds, frozen soil all add to the problem.