Really and Truly Dead

I'm still discovering, and being surprised by, which plants didn't survive the December deep freeze. Still in the wait-and-see category is Viburnum tinus 'Spring Bouquet' - sure, part of the shrub is alive and blooming, but most is so brown and wilted I'm afraid I'm going to have to chop it down to a nubbins. And how about all those brown carexes and pheasant grasses (Anemanthele lessoniana)? I don't remember them looking quite so sorry most springs....but I'm hopeful I'll see signs of life any day now. I'm holding off on yanking them....and I've cut out a good part of my prostrate rosemary, but the remaining skeleton seems to be holding on to its leaves and even blooming anemically.  

But I can't ignore the sad fact that my little hedges of Spanish, or rabbit's ear lavender (Lavender stoechas) are truly dead and have to go. These bi-color, early-blooming lavenders with their appealing rabbit-eared blossoms are my favorites, and I'll replace them, one more time anyway....

On a happier note, if you're in Langley or up for a jaunt to Whidbey Island tomorrow morning, I'm giving a talk about how to be an artist in your own garden, and answering questions about gardening, at Museo Gallery on First Street at 11:30 a.m. Join us to see the gallery's garden art show, meander across the street to the charming Chocolate Flower Farm shop (The Garden Shed), visit a couple of the island's great nurseries (Bayview Farm and Garden and Cultus Bay) and join in the celebration to welcome the whales to Langley, which includes a parade down First Street.

Here's a photo of Bridget in the garden, looking a little sad herself about the dead little lavender hedges edging the raised beds behind her - by this afternoon they'll be history...

 

Comments

[Sue N.]

How was the artshow experience? Have any photos??

[valerie Easton]

Hi Sue,
The garden art show at Museo is great, and lasts only one more week - I sold and signed lots of copies of "Artists In Their Gardens", which is now out of print...it was fun to get so many gardeners together on a sunny spring morning. Not sure how to attach photos here, but in a minute I'll post a couple of photos from the art show...
Val

[Karen]

I wonder why that lavender died for you but not for me? Mine is even a random volunteer that came across the sidewalk from the neighbors' garden, too. I lost broad-leaf hebes but none of the smaller-leaved ones. My trailing rosemary looks awful, and I have many many many of them and still don't know what to do - a few green leaves low down on the plants but the rest look horrendous, and it's along our retaining wall on the street so the first thing people see is dead-looking plants. So much work to dig them all out, I have been avoiding it just in case they decide to recover!