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Legacy of the frosts

wildlife, gardening, environment, Rural living, Pets and Vets
stewamax
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Legacy of the frosts

#411692

Postby stewamax » May 13th, 2021, 5:01 pm

Last winter was not severe so I didn't expect unusual carnage among my plants and shrubs.
But my hebes - or at least the taller stragglier ones - have not recovered, are brown all over, and I have reluctantly euthanised them. Especially affected were the larger-leaved ones such as variegated Pinocchio. Even those with somewhat smaller leaves such as the maroon 'Rhubarb and Custard' got a pasting.
But the groundcover hebes, particularly the Emerald Green type ('hedgehog' hebes) with small leaves were completely unaffected, as were almost all my heucheras and heucherellas.

Dod101
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#411693

Postby Dod101 » May 13th, 2021, 5:08 pm

stewamax wrote:Last winter was not severe so I didn't expect unusual carnage among my plants and shrubs.
But my hebes - or at least the taller stragglier ones - have not recovered, are brown all over, and I have reluctantly euthanised them. Especially affected were the larger-leaved ones such as variegated Pinocchio. Even those with somewhat smaller leaves such as the maroon 'Rhubarb and Custard' got a pasting.
But the groundcover hebes, particularly the Emerald Green type ('hedgehog' hebes) with small leaves were completely unaffected, as were almost all my heucheras and heucherellas.


I am not sure what you call severe but we had frosts of down to around -10/12C for a continuous 10 days or so (South Perthshire). Where I live that is usually regarded as severe. Hebes are not suitable for where I am as even in a relatively mild winter I lose them so have long since given up on them.

I even had new growth on roses frosted this year, not because of particularly severe fort but because of very late frost.

I think hebes are really only suitable for coastal areas in Scotland.

Dod

kiloran
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#411698

Postby kiloran » May 13th, 2021, 5:21 pm

Dod101 wrote:I think hebes are really only suitable for coastal areas in Scotland.

Dod

My Hebe Sutherland and Hebe Golden Globe (both small-leaved) have been fine for the past 25 years or so in West-Central Scotland. Loads of them, some quite exposed.

--kiloran

88V8
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#412115

Postby 88V8 » May 15th, 2021, 12:08 pm

I was surprised at the frost damage.
Not particularly cold, but it was late.

The top of our nitida hedge browned off in places. Never done that before.
A newly planted pheasant berry died.
Some established ornamental grasses have turned to mush.
Two long-standing potentillas died.

We have a number of hebes, planted by the PO, they never flower well probably because they are too shaded and I should get rid of them, but they all survived.

Other tender items, camellia, magnolia, just had a little scorching.

On the plus side, as I have commented before the duckweed in the pond died. I never thought I would be rid of that.

V8

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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#412284

Postby Nimrod103 » May 15th, 2021, 9:13 pm

In the previous two Springs my outdoor grapevine lost some of its buds due to frost in early May (as I recall). I had to cover the buds with insulation, but it still didn't work too well.

But this April/early May has been so generally cold, that the buds are only just showing now, and so escaped frost damage. I note many French growers have not been so lucky.

I reckon the season is at least 3 weeks later than normal.

stewamax
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#414613

Postby stewamax » May 24th, 2021, 1:35 pm

To counterbalance things, my peonies, which in Autumn I cut back to around 10cm of stalk, have gone bananas, particularly with the recent rain.
In around three weeks they seem to have gone from almost nothing to be about to bloom.

Sorcery
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#414776

Postby Sorcery » May 24th, 2021, 9:03 pm

Not sure it's a frost legacy but certainly problems this spring. This year I wanted to try and get separate patches of the garden devoted to Rosebay Willowherb, Foxgloves and some additional Vipers Bugloss. Collected the seeds or was given some by friends last Autumn. Decided to plant early in small pots. April the soil was dry as a bone, cold & perpetually sunny and perpetually windy. May has been almost as bad though latterly with some rain. I could not get the plants out April or early May unless I was prepared to use a pickaxe, there are no flower beds in my garden, so no easy digging.

With the arrival of rain, the ground is soft enough to make small holes for the plants, so some are going out now. The plants have outgrown their pots though and they now have place mats of roots underneath them (which will be lost when I remove the pots).

What a year though, it's almost June and I still have around 80 plants to get out there. The temperature here in Guernsey seems to have been hovering around the 10 degrees C mark since the end of March and it's no better today. No signs of Global Warming here, more like a new ice age.

Edited to add : Here is the metcheck forecast for the next couple of days :
https://www.metcheck.com/WEATHER/now_an ... e=GUERNSEY
The only thing that's changed in the last two months is the rain.

Mike4
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#414824

Postby Mike4 » May 24th, 2021, 11:02 pm

stewamax wrote:To counterbalance things, my peonies, which in Autumn I cut back to around 10cm of stalk, have gone bananas, particularly with the recent rain.
In around three weeks they seem to have gone from almost nothing to be about to bloom.


Blimey is that what you're supposed to do to them?

I have two magnificent peonies in my garden. Shrub is too small a word, almost like small trees. I cut them back last Autumn to four or five feet, was I too timid?

Breelander
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Re: Legacy of the frosts

#414839

Postby Breelander » May 25th, 2021, 12:22 am

Mike4 wrote:
stewamax wrote:To counterbalance things, my peonies, which in Autumn I cut back to around 10cm of stalk, have gone bananas, particularly with the recent rain.
In around three weeks they seem to have gone from almost nothing to be about to bloom.


Blimey is that what you're supposed to do to them?

I have two magnificent peonies in my garden. Shrub is too small a word, almost like small trees. I cut them back last Autumn to four or five feet, was I too timid?


There are two types of peony, stewamax has a herbaceous peony, you have a tree peony. The treatment for each is quite different.

RHS wrote:Tree peonies require minimal pruning. Just remove flowered shoots, cutting them off just above the new growth on the stem in summer...

...Stems may become leggy over many years. Cut them back by a third in the autumn after leaf-fall to encourage bushier growth.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/popular/p ... wing-guide


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