In the weeks since I first wrote about the storm that hit our region mid-January I've spent lots of time surveying the damage in the garden. Most of the weak succulents were taken out last year, so with a few exceptions—I'm looking at you Aloiampelos (aloe) striatula—succulents seem to have mostly escaped this go 'round. Instead, this storm will be remembered for the extreme damage it did to the broadleaf evergreens (referred to in these parts as BLEs). Like this Metapanax delavayi (Z7).![]()
Last year's storm was the first time I'd had so many of evergreen shrubs completely defoliate. It's a horrible feeling to watch something that should be evergreen drop every one of its leaves over several weeks-months. It draws out the "is it dead?/is it alive" question for an agonizing period of time, it's messy, ugly, and demoralizing to clean up brown leaves over and over in the springtime. In the photo above the metapanax still has a bit of a green tinge to it, but when we hit 62F last Thursday the leaves all turned brown and began to fall.
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This Schefflera taiwaniana (Z7) took on a similarly unhealthy hue.
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Are they gonna die? Are they going to drop these damaged leaves and grow new? We wait.
I'm including the USDA Zone rating for all of the plants I write about in this post after their names. Why? Because there seem to be a few folks who think that everything I plant is pushing my Zone, no, far from it. Especially since the experts behind the new USDA Zone map are under the impression that I'm actually gardening in Zone 9a. Ha!
Here are the two patches of aspidistra (cast-iron plant) that still look good.
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It boggles my mind that this strongly variegated Aspidistra elatior 'Variegata' (Z7) was pretty much untouched, as I'd have thought the variegation would have made this guy kind of weak.
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Just two feet away all the foliage on this spotted aspidistra is damaged. In fact as I write this (a couple of days after taking the photo) it has turned straw colored. The droopy leaves behind it belong to Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' (Z8), they're crispy now and starting to fall off.
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Yep, more Aspidistra elatior (Z6-8 depending on who you believe) damage.
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It's hard to tell in this photo just how many of those leaves are bad. Sadly this is VERY slow growing plant.
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Pulled back a bit you can see the damage on the Mahonia eurybracteata 'Soft Caress' (Z7), it's the brown foliage. There's also some damage to the Mahonia eurybracteata 'Indianola Silver' (Z7) (front left) but it's not as dramatic.
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As a lover of dark foliage I find these leaves rather beautiful.
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To bad they aren't healthy. Will the plant live? I hope so, but I won't know for a while and if they do flush out new growth it won't be along the lower part of the stem, just at the end. I fear some plants will take on a tall and gangly look.
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To say that my mahonia collection was hit hard is an understatement (are you ready for lots of ugly mahonia?) Mahonia x savilliana (Z7).
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Mahonia x media 'Marvel' (Z6)
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Mahonia lomariifolia ssp. tenuifolia (Z8)
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Mahonia fortunei ‘Dan Hinkley’ (Z7)
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Mahonia confusa 'Narihira' (Z7)![]()
These plants are all across my garden in vastly different locations. Some of them are in protected spots where the strong east wind (which blew when it was 12F) shouldn't have been a factor, so it must have been the cold. This one, Mahonia gracilipes (Z7) was definitely whipped around hard in the wind though.
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Another Mahonia fortunei ‘Dan Hinkley’ (Z7)
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Interestingly Mahonia x media 'Charity' (Z7) suffered almost no damage, although it's flowers were immediately zapped.
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Oh the pyrrosia. This is one of the better looking patches (P. lingua Z8).
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Most of the leaves in other patches around the garden look like this (unless they were in a spot where I could cover them). This evergreen fern grows along creeping rhizomes, so damaged/dead fronds will not be replaced but new ones will come up further along the rhizome, assuming they're still alive.
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Another new one for damage, Asarum caudatum (Z7), our western wild ginger.
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Lomatia tinctoria (Z7), some leaves are all black, some are a little more green.
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Grevillea rivularis (Z8) with the yellow arrows. I'm pretty sure it's dead. The white arrows point to Grevillea x gaudichaudii (Z8). The leaves are brown where they were exposed, but what was under the frost cloth for the little agave are still green. I have hope!
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This is a branch of one of my three Callistemon ‘Woodlander's Hardy Red’ (Z7). Obviously it has some issues...
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The Woodlander's in the back garden was still struggling to recover from last winter, I'm pretty sure it's a gonner. The two in the front garden have a little green on them (like in the photo). Will they drop the brown leaves and recover? Only time will tell. The color of my Callistemon viridiflorus (I have two) is also a little "off". Gawd I hope I don't loose these established plants.
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I planted a pair back in 2013 and hoped as they became more established they would stop with the leaf browning and drop when we have extreme winters, but they have not. This is the second year in a row it's happened. You've heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Well I am ready to call it quits on this one (I already said sayonara to the other one).
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A few of the flowers on the far south side of the edgeworthia are opening, slowly, but most of them are just sort of frozen in the bud stage and starting to fall apart.
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All over my social media accounts people were rushing to cover their edgeworthia before the cold. My plant stretches this entire side of the front of our house and is at least eight ft tall (guessing). Can you imagine my trying to cover it, and then keep the covering on in 50-mph wind? This is the second year in a row the blooms will not open with their vibrant color and fantastic scent, what's the point of growing a plant like this when you don't get to enjoy the blooms?
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The Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' (Z7) flowers were in full bloom when the cold hit. Many of them fell to the ground with the ice, but the ones that remained look like this. The hummingbirds are usually all over these flowers and the ones on the edgeworthia. Not this year (or last).
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The usually evergreen Stachyurus salicifolius (the wide shrub with the long leaves, Z7), is also fixing to drop both it's leaves and its pendulous blooms.
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This is another plant that went through the same thing last winter. Once the plants that were hit last year leafed out (or in a couple of cases did not) I figured that horrible experience was over and something I wouldn't have to experience again, or at least for many years. Except here we are. It's got to be pretty taxing for a plant to have to go thru that two years in a row.
These plants are all across my garden in vastly different locations. Some of them are in protected spots where the strong east wind (which blew when it was 12F) shouldn't have been a factor, so it must have been the cold. This one, Mahonia gracilipes (Z7) was definitely whipped around hard in the wind though.
Some of my groundcover saxifrage are looking bad too. These have never been winter-damaged in my garden before. Saxifraga x geum 'Dentata' (Z6)
And then there's this...again, it got browner after I took this photo and started dropping it's leaves (sorry I keep saying this, but it really is remarkable the change that took place in the garden with just one 60F day, everything that was damaged nosedived). I am speaking of the Acca sellowiana (pineapple guava Z8) in the large container.
Besides the foliage damage to the BLEs, there's also the sad state of the winter and early spring bloomers, like edgeworthia and arctostaphylos. Here the doomed flowers of Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold' (Z8) cozy up to the pineapple guava leaves.
In this part of the garden the ground is already covered with a mix of Stachyurus salicifolius leaves and blooms, along with the dropping leaves of Maytenus boaria 'Green Showers' another evergreen (Z8 or 9 depending on source).
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This brown Astelia nervosa 'Westland' (Z8) died back to the ground last year and managed to put on this much growth over the summer. Can it rebound again?
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Eryngium proteiflorum (Z8) dead?
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Succulent plants I didn't cover have speckling consistent with ice pellet damage. This is Agave bracteosa (Z8)...
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Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica' (Z7)
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Because I want to end on a hopeful note here are a couple of success stories. This Astelia 'Red Devil' (Z7) made it thru last winter's crazy storm uncovered, but I didn't want to risk it a second time (since I knew from experience the others were gonna die back no matter what), so I wrapped it. Yay! It looks good.
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You might remember the cover I put over the Pseudopanax ferox (Z8) from my earlier storm post? Well knock wood, throw salt and cross fingers... but it looks like it worked!
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The Friday the storm hit I finally called it quits on my protection efforts when I ran out of covering materials. I came indoors to warm up, looked out the window, and saw this Agave 'Mateo' (Z7) with no protection, I'd completely missed it! I hoped in my car and rushed to my closest nursery buying all the frost cloth they had left (not much). Thank god, as it looks good! (photo from January 28th, the callistemon and rosemary had not yet turned brown).
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It's been kept dry under cover since mid-November and it looks like that's made it happy (again with the wood, salt and fingers!).
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This is a nice surprise as well, Agave victoriae-reginae (Z8) looking good! This plant *should* be hardy here, but you rarely see it in local gardens. In all my years of gardening here I think I've only seen it in the ground once.
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