Camp. - I haven't (quite) given up on the Pasqueflower yet but I'm not optimistic! Interesting tip re burying the seedheads.... I'll try that in the future! I've never noticed any seedlings from them in the past. The soil here is neutral-to-alkaline and there is a crushed limestone base under the brick edging. So they should be happy with that. The delphiniums like it too I think. If the Pasqueflower doesn't reappear, I have no idea why it would have died when it looks like the newer one survived. What is a normal lifespan for them? Maybe it just died of old age....?

Hard to say, Woody. I have had a little clump for 15 years or so...but I think I have cycled through seedlings so it is difficult to say how long the originals survived. Good to see the rest of your (lovely, serene) garden waking up though.

Hmmm. I also lost a pasqueflower this winter, but it's entirely possible it bloomed itself to death last summer and I didn't notice. I'll have to bury a few seedheads and see how that goes, but of course the one I lost was the favorite for its rich dark purple.

Surprisingly few losses here. We had an unusually wet summer and I think I lost many daffodils and a few tulips (damp soil+warm summer=rot I guess) but other than the rapid onset of winter and some evergreen damage from that, things look mostly ok. (I do have a variegated boxwood which looks quite unattractively burnt though)

The rabbits did the most damage. Usually they only nibble all the flowering stems off the blueberries but this winter they thought pruning all the most special dwarf conifers would be a good idea. Apparently they can sense which ones were bought locally vs which ones were much more expensive mailorder. Maybe I can still save them as some odd form of tortured bonsai.

Actually all my neglected shrub cuttings from last year seemed to have died. I really can't blame the winter for that, I should have at least anticipated that temps would eventually go below freezing.

Many of the stems are completely black, but some look like they may have survived.

==>>> those that are partially damaged.. will be cut back to one or two good low buds ... correct??

i know you know.. just for those who are reading along who might not ....

knowing your gardens thru your pix.. i am surprised to see the suburban location out front... i would have never guessed that from the pix of the back ...

ken

katob - there seems to be a plentiful crop of rabbits around this spring here. I haven't noticed any damage to woody stuff yet (but I haven't inspected the backyard yet up close....) The rabbits have definitely been nibbling on bulb foliage in the front garden, especially tulips - but I noticed just now looking out the home-office window that the clump of 'squirrel tulips' under the oak look completely intact so there are either fewer rabbits in the backyard - or they've been eating something else instead!

ken - you're right re the roses - we're not cutting QE back until we see buds sprouting so we can just cut off the clearly dead stuff but keep the healthy stuff. Yes, we're in suburbia here :-) The neighbourhood dates back to the early 1960s so the lots are 1/4 acre in size. Quite a few people let the back of their property 'go wild', leaving trees and shrubs to get big - that's why the pictures from the backyard here don't look too suburban - there are large trees and shrubs on the properties behind us, which help our garden look bigger than it actually is.... Also, a lot of the fences are still original chainlink, some of them only 3' tall, so they are pretty transparent resulting in all the backyards sort of looking like one large property - 'borrowed views' and all that.... Tall wood fences and tall evergreen hedges are becoming more common as original houses are torn down and replaced by very big new ones. When we bought this property in 1999 there had never been a fence between this property and the neighbour to the north. We were viewed suspiciously at first as we were doing an extensive renovation and addition and people were afraid we were going to be the type that changes the character of the neighbourhood :-) The neighbours to the north begged us not to put up a fence, but our dog at the time was a rescued dog who was .... um.... unreliably friendly with people she didn't know. We needed to keep her securely on our property. But we aren't fond of big wooden fences so we went with 4' black chainlink, which satisfied the neighbours, kept Chelsea on our property, and kept the open look of the properties, so everyone was happy....

It's been a wet morning and I'm a bit bored stuck indoors... :-) So I've been playing around on the computer - here is a picture from Google Earth for ken to show that we are indeed in suburbia. I'm not sure why there's a green line around the street.... Near the bottom left corner you can see the 'forest' around the water treatment plant where the coyotes have their den and where the forest is carpeted in white trilliums in May. You can also see why 'cooler by the lake' is a factor here.