The Cracked Daphnes – Live (but not for long)

As our glacier retreats, winter damage can be found everywhere. Even this Japanese maple in the front garden lost some limbs as the ice and heavy snow pulled down then branches.

I should know better. I mean, I ran around like a nut last October freaking out about all that needed to be done before it snowed, and making tepee’s from wood slats was one the things I knew that I needed to do, but I didn’t, and now I am paying the price. With this years intense snow, there really wasn’t much hope for the many alpine Daphne’s that were growing in the raised stone wall alpine garden. I think I may have lost all of them, many were over ten years old. 

This Daphne x Laurence Crocker is most likely gone forever, after being crushed by the ten feet of wet snow that slid off of the greenhouse this past January. Below, another plant in the crevice garden by the studio, survived.

In the greenhouse, the Dutch bulbs continue to bloom, and now the sun is so strong, that I need to hand the shade cloth next weekend.

The four arches of Aristolochia are gone, destroyed by the weight of the snow this winter.

Oh, Fuki!

Spring is arriving so late, that the squirrels are starving since there is little bare ground still. Some of our fav rodentia are enjoying the early cobs of Petasites japonicus ssp giganteus ( Sweet Coltsfoot or Fuki in Japan, where it is a spring treat served with rice), which in normal winters, would be in full bloom by now, but ours are just beginning to emerge, I could only find a couple and both were chewed up. 

A young Hamamelis ‘Diane’, snapped off at the base.

Again,  I should have known better, three new Hamamelis (Witchhazel’s) that I planted last spring, are all broken, but they seem to have broken above the graft so maybe they will resprout ( not ideal). I did stake them with bamboo, but the snow and ice broke the stakes, too.

Daphne mezereum ‘alba’,, crushed, but not yet gone. This would typically be in bloom now, too.

Last year, it bloomed in January.

The lovely espaliared apples have all lost their bottom branches, which really messes up my plans for these trained trees, I may need to toss them, or try to see if new growth emerges and then I could  retrain the four bottom branches. Right now, they are essentially, ruined.

One would think that I am crazy about Velthiemia, but last year I decided to divide all of my plants, and now, I have more than I know what to do with.