I've heard numerous differing accounts about whether or not we can get gladiolus, freesias and dahlias to survive our winters.

==>> then you are probably discussing it with peeps who have different micro climates ... like you seem to have in your own garden

you said: I have a death of freesias coming up

is that a typo for dearth.. or have you coined a new term ... i could see a death of malignant weeds.. but not freesia ... lol ... [i am aware of a murder of crows .. but i digress .. apparently .. lol]

ken

hahaha auto correct always gets me! it was supposed to say "swath".

and i am confused about a z9 plant making it thru winter THREE zones colder ... that is way beyond zone pushing ... ken

I actually just cut some gladioli today, the remnants of glads from when I sold at market. These bulbs were planted at least ten years ago, and the same half dozen or so continue to pop up each year. Now, why have the other (many more than half dozen!) bulbs planted there, in the same spot, NOT overwintered for years and years? I couldn't tell you, lol.

Last year I grew dahlias for my daughter's wedding. I had dahlia tubers coming out the ears, and just couldn't get to all of them to dig and store. I'd say I have at least three (out of maybe 8???) that returned on their own, all in different spots in the yard, and one of them in a raised bed. Again, why? I don't know. I did lose all the dahlias that were in pots over the winter, as I expected I would.

I think Ken's right - microclimates play a big role. Also, I think the info we get on zone hardiness is probably outdated, not modified for our changing climate. I think I've actually seen some zone maps which ARE updated, putting me in I think zone 7 now. I still go by zone 6 to ensure hardiness in my garden. So I wouldn't plant something non-zone-hardy EXPECTING it to come back, but if it does I take it as a gift!!

:)
Dee

I grow a very nice crepe myrtle in what's technically Zone 6B, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania.

But it's in a nano-climate set up just for that particular tree and maintained by this particular human on the southwestern face of a cream-colored house on the edge of an evergreen and a wall, heavily mulched and burlap-walled on the other face for winter. Even so, I lose upper branches if the winter is harsh, although the roots and lower trunk will survive and sprout new branches.

I've technically slid into Zone 7A recently (and last winter was closer to Zone 7B/8A). Siberian Iris were workable back in the 1970's in protected and colder areas. Nowadays, forget it. I can keep a few, but most simply rot.

It's not necessarily the zone, per se, it's the recent irregularity, year on year, that's becoming a problem more than anything else.

The best I can do is shoot for the middle, plant daffodils, and hope for the best.

What NHBabs said--though we did get down below -20degF in northern VT for a few nights, it certainly wasn't a cold winter!

My 2 cents: For the past couple of years, I have been growing from seed in above ground containers that I do not protect (plants are started indoors). It seems stupidly obvious when I say it out loud but, different individuals react differently. I have a beautiful range of Prunus subhirtella growing. In a few dozen plants you can see everything from terrible to great performance (they are all growing in the same small pen.) So, if you can grow those plants from seed, you might try starting a hundred of each indoors, moving them outside, and letting them fend for themselves!

The last 2 winters have not been bad in Central MA. No elongated death freezes. Maybe the winters before where we had freezes so bad we had no peaches, and record breaking amounts of snow, just have me feeling like anything less is mild.

Anyways, a lot of things that do not always survive the winter, have survived the winter the past few years. My mother's Endless Summer hydrangea in central MA actually has a number of blue blooms on it this year.

Last time someone on here asked about planting in this area and I told them I won't spend money on plants that won't make it through zone 4 because there's a good chance we'll get one of THOSE winters and it will die, I got a long lecture from some "senior" poster about zones and maps and determining species of plants, etc. Good luck.

All my life four houses in different but nearby towns, glads and dahlias have been hardy perennials. I don't recall ever trying to overwinter freesias (though I think I grew them once when a teenager). And we're talking randomly over the last 40 years (not just last few years).

Thanks for the info everyone!

Ken - I agree 3 zones is a bit intense, I am guessing it's what a couple others have mentioned about our mild winters the last year or so.

Dee - that's great that your gladiolus have come back that's so exciting. I always love seeing them start to poke their way out of the ground haha. I have tons of dahlias now, that I crammed into pots that are not nearly large enough to accommodate them all hahaha. I seem to have done that with all my tender bulbs this year,.started running out of pots lol. If I leave them in the ground mine just rot (yay dense, wet new england clay lol). That's good advice of not EXPECTING things to come back.

Morpehous - wow crepe myrtles are beautiful! I always admired them in photos but figured they weren't a possibility in this zone. Haha gotta love old reliable daffodils. I feel like I practically abuse those things and they still pop up every year just as nice as before.

NH Babs - good point I actually kind of loved how mild our winter was, though obviously slightly concerned about such significant climate change haha.

Addison - that's awesome! I might be able to start a few of the bulbs inside, I have a-hole cats who like to chew leaves and pee in pots (but I love them because they're cute aholes) so everything I grow is either safely tucked away in the AeroGarden of my home office which is like 10'x10' haha. I should check to see which take the longest to bloom and start those early (I'm estimating I have about 500 or so tender bulbs).

Ruth - I've started considering zone 4 as well when I think about my roses! I was devastated when I first lost some roses over the winter (though I think that had less to do with the winter and more to do with me burning the ever living crap out of them with too much soil acidifier...)

dbarron - that's great you've been able to get them to come back! perhaps I can look into some way of adding extra protection. For the most part the garden I WOULD put them in has a nice thick blanket of snow for most of the season.

One of the saving graces is my soil never freezes...(ie no snow on top) :) I'm not sure that snow on top is going to be conducive to these tender plants.

The snow has generally been a good insulator for my roses but who knows.

Also I have to embarrass myself and let everyone know that the freesias were NOT in fact freesias. I must have gotten my labels mixed up because I just discovered they are in fact crocomsia hahaha. So that explains why they stayed alive over winter. Whoops..

Crocosmia are fully hardy here...dunno how far north they go though (off top of head).

From the quick research I did looks like zone 6, but some varieties zone 4. Well silver lining the flowers that I love are hardy here!