Friday, January 27, 2023

Winter horror in my garden

Here we are, back in my garden. On Wednesday I shared photos of the good stuff, today it's time to look at the not so good. First subject, my big Agave weberi in the driveway, that's it on the far left. The smaller agave in the tub is an Agave americana that went into the garage during the December cold. I wouldn't have thought the unheated garage would have made that much of a difference but the A. americana is fine, and...

... the entire center of the Agave weberi is now turning soft and rotting. This plant has been growing here for years! It looks like this will be the end though.

Following the same path I took in that earlier—winter interest—post, I've now walked down the driveway to the front garden and we're looking at one of my two Feijoa sellowiana (pineapple guava). It's about 80% defoliated I have no doubt all the leaves will eventually fall.

I'm also pretty sure that by the summer months they'll have regrown. This happened once before after a bad cold spell, back in 2014 if memory serves. To refresh your memory, this storm took my part of Portland to below freezing (ultimate low of 19F) where we stayed for almost 72 hours—three days not going above freezing does a number on our plants. Add in the harsh east wind (desiccating cold wind on the evergreens) and ice, and a lot of plant damage is the result.

Meanwhile the leaves just add to the winter mess, as they're very thick, don't break down easily and I have to clean them up.

Here's another agave that's taken a turn for the worst. If this was say, April, I'd have more hope, but we've still got a lot of rain and more cold (a couple of nights in the low 20's coming up) to help that rot grow. I believe this is an Agave salmiana.

As if the weather wasn't providing enough plant horror, the damn rabbit(s) are creating another nightmare. That empty patch next to the sidewalk, it used to be solid with black mondo grass, sedum, and sempervivum. 

They've ate it bare. I'm so angry!

That's an expensive snack you little furry terrors!

Across the sidewalk there are signs of munching on my cute little Agave x leopoldii.

An agave manages to hang on and still look good after the crazy weather and then gets eaten. I hope it hurt.

Weather damage on the Agave parrasanna 'Meat Claw'.

More rabbit damage on this Agave bracteosa—but look! It's fighting to make a rebound and new growth is pushing out of the center.

More ugly! Serious ugly. 

Times two. One of these is an Agave salmiana, I'm not sure what the other is.

It does not look good for this poor plant.

Cordyline Cha Cha, starting it's death decline. This is one of two that I have, I'll end up cutting them back to the ground and they'll ever so slowly return. A couple years from now (unless next winter is nasty) they'll look good again.

This is the hardest pill to swallow. The bad spot on the large Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' next to my front steps keeps growing...

There were Cordyline australis here. The tops started to collapse so I chopped them. I'm pretty sure I've seen these sprout new growth from somewhere on the side of the trunk, so I thought I'd see if they wanted to go that route. If not I'll cut these down and the new bottom growth (unfazed by the cold) can take over.

Poor little Clarity Blue Dianella, both eaten by the rabbit(s) AND attacked by the cold.

We're in the back garden now and assessing the astelia damage. The plant on the right—Astelia 'Red Devil'—is one of the survivors, the plant on the left however is slowly melting.

I'm holding out hope that part of it lives, but I can tug on the leaves of this side part and they pull right out.

The same here. On the right is 'Red Devil' and it's solid, the one on the left is not.

And here, the leaves pull right out. Damn. I wish I could remember which ones these are, but that knowledge was lost to time.

This mass of ugly is part astelia (dead) and part Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' which is hanging on to some of it's leaves (as well as some black mondo, leaf litter and who knows what else).

This Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' however is a crispy mess.

The pyrrosia. Oh the pyrrosia. I've got these planted all over my garden (on account of the fact I LOVE them). Several plants are fine, or have minimal damage, unfortunately this mass planting of P. lingua, P. lingua 'Variegata', and P. hastata was really damaged by the cold, wind and ice (not to mention they're covered in leaves falling from the Stachyurus salicifolius and Maytenus boaria 'Green Showers').

While these are ferns, they're not the type that will replace the damaged fronds with a new flush of growth come spring. Their leaves sprout along a creeping stolon.

It's going to be really painful to cut off the damage and leave these plants looking bare. 

Several aspidistra are looking horrible as well, and also semi-buried by fallen leaves.

These plants only put out a couple of new leaves each year, so it's going to take awhile for them to rebound—assuming they can.
 
All three of my Cyrtomium fortunei look like this. Pretty pathetic, right? I have no experience with this plant and bad weather. It's supposedly hardy to Zone 6 so hopefully if I trim back these toasted fronds new ones will grow out in the spring.

Another said Clarity Blue Dianella, one of a pair in the back garden that got hit hard by the weather, no rabbit.

The leaves on Pseudopanax 'Sabre' looked great right after the freeze, but they're starting to turn. I've got no idea what this one will do long term either.

Stachyurus salicifolius continues to loose its leaves.

The pendulous bloom spikes remain however. Will they hang on to bloom this spring? We shall see.

Mahonia lomariifolia ssp. tenuifolia is hanging onto it's damaged leaves.

Where as this Mahonia x sevillana (a hybrid between M. eurybracteata and M. gracilipes from the Miller Garden) has dropped them all. Is it still alive? I have no idea. Note the thick layer of leaves, cones, conifer branches, etc, etc, etc, that's covering the soil. This is not what you should be seeing, there are small plants hidden under there!

What type of plants you ask? Well, for example Asarum maximum 'Ling Ling', not that it's anything to look at right now. Normally it's a lovely evergreen plant, hardy to Zone 7. The leaves in this photo look horribly sad!

The last plant to be featured on this list of horrors (note I said the last to be featured, there are plenty more I didn't photgraph) is my Metapanax delavayi. This is the side facing the house, it looks pretty good, all things considered.
There are a few sad leaves...

But nothing like what you see when you walk around to the back side where most everything is crispy brown and falling.

It's odd to have half a shrub look okay and half look this bad. My garden seems to have many strange microclimates that change with the wind and the seasons.

37 comments:

  1. It was a lot more fun reading Wednesday's post.
    There's a lot of Agave heartbreak in your garden, most notable the large beauty by the front door.
    It's interesting to see how much hardier Astelia 'Red Devil' is. Good to know for future replacement.
    Knowing how much you love pyrrosia, (I had to look up "creeping stolon"), their damage must sting even more. They will come around eventually, but having to cut off damaged leafs and wait for the slow rejuvenation is painful.
    Chavli

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    1. It was a lot more fun putting Wednesday's post together!

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  2. My green heart aches for you. Damned rabbits first of all and then those east winds. It's a damned good thing you have so much fabulous-ness all over your garden, certainly all of the damage will be swallowed up by spring? Your Cyrtomium fortunei - I have had similar die off and they did come back from what I thought was certain death.

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  3. Thanks so much for these winter posts! Couple echoes in my garden would be a Dianella 'Baby Bliss' I brought up from zone 10, which did nothing all summer but survive, and is still showing healthy growth -- weird! A Cyrtomium falcatum planted under the overhang eaves is fine. Astelia banksii in a stock tank near the house looks done for. Very young stachyurus and metapanax look fine, but as you say there's a lot of winter left! The corokia I bought when meeting up with you at your talk last summer is not 'Sunsplash' but a dark brown number that looks fine planted way back under the overhang eaves. It is a game of inches! My little varieg weberii is mushed too. So sorry you're losing some big agaves. Unfortunately, it looks like it truly is the year of the rabbit!

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    1. Thanks for the beachy report! What is the wind like in your garden?

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    2. we had that December wind episode that knocked out power for a couples days but nothing as severe since. I do remember spring being very windy though...

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  4. Maybe we need a "wall" across the Gorge to prevent those frigid migrating winds!

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    1. Yes please! Shall we start a "go fund me"?

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  5. This is hard to digest. My heart goes out to you. I have similar issues, with different agaves. Hopefully both of us will be surprised by how many plants bounce back from this.

    I have a handful of Agave x leopoldtii pups if you want some...

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    1. I would love some leo pups! Today I was working in the front garden and pulled on the center of one of those agaves in the containers, the one under the words "It does not look good for this poor plant"... the next thing I knew I had half an agave dangling from my hand...

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  6. I'm so sorry, Loree. Did the winter cold do this much damage last year? I hope many of these will return from their roots for you. The rabbits continue to surprise me, especially as they seem to vary so much in what they'll eat. I haven't tried any deterrents (chemical or otherwise) as those I tried to put off raccoons had little effect but, as the rabbit have entrenched themselves here, I may have to experiment - the coyotes seem to have given up.

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    1. No, we have not had a winter with temperatures like this in some time. Last winter wasn't nearly this harsh, hardly damage occurred. This year we were below freezing night and day for almost 3 days, with very high winds and ice, that's a deadly combination.

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  7. The cycle of life can be so devastating at times! Coyotes help with rabbit control up here in Seattle. Was seeing rabbits on my night camera all summer until a hungry coyote showed up around August. Took care of rabbit problem for a bit until just the other night I spied a rabbit again. Hoping coyote returns soon.

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    1. We have several coyotes here in NE Portland, evidently they're just not hungry enough.

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  8. I hear you about the damn rabbits! Sooo much damage and death in my garden over the years because of them. Grrrr.... We've had a fox this winter hanging around, so that has helped a bit, but that doesn't last forever in town. I hope most of your plants will recover and re-grow. I bet they will. :)

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    1. A fox! People here freak out when they see coyotes, I can't image what they'd do if a fox showed up!

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  9. Ouch at the winter damage!

    Rabbits eating the plants as well is just adding insult to injury!

    Your Cordyline australis will sprout back from the trunk or possibly the base. They are likely to become multi-stemmed as well. Up here in inland Scotland they don't last many years before they get killed by a cold winter, but down in the south of England they can grow into really big specimens.

    We had a cold spell back at the beginning of December and our low was -12C (10F) and it stayed below freezing for about 5 days. A couple of my Agaves in pots have died (my fault for not putting them under the shelter down the side of the house) and I am seeing quite a bit of damage of some evergreens like Camellia and Rhododendrons.

    My Mahonia sevilliana has survived okay and the leaves look fine. It is strange how yours has been damaged.

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    1. Those cordylines have died back to the ground and regrown so many times that I've lost count. We had some beauties going around town, some are melting, some look fine. Five days and 10F is harsh! That's not normal winter for you is it? So sorry about your agaves and the other plants.

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    2. Our winter lows can be quite variable.

      17/18F would be a normal winter low, but quite often we have periods of up to a week where the temperature will not go above freezing and that can cause quite a bit of damage.

      2 years ago we went down to 7F and in Dec 09 and Dec 10 we went down just below -0F and that caused serious amount of damage.

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  10. Chilly winter for your area this year--and far from over. I hope the spring rebound and renewal will be particularly spectacular and inspiring for you.

    Blankety-blank rabbits!!!!! Grrrr!

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    1. Some of the neighbors feed the rabbits. Like intentionally. Food left out to attract them. Ugh.

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  11. So sorry to hear of the awful damage your plants have suffered. I want to get back on your mailing list, both my sister and I were offed quite some time back.

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    1. Sadly Google/Blogger stopped sending emails when new posts went up. I am still posting Mon, Wed, Fri every week! I'm trying to get a new system in place for emails but just haven't had time to do so.

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  12. Oh dear, what a sad state of affairs ! And the front door ovatifolia such a crappy development. How long have you had this damnable bunny thing going on ? I don't recall mention of those critters in your garden until really recently .

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    1. The bunnies showed up with COVID, a plague in another sense.

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  13. We won’t talk about the hated rabbits. For me, the real issue is climate change. We no longer know what to expect or when to expect it. So it’s impossible to decide what plants will now survive in our gardens or how to protect our treasures. It’s the new abnormal.

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    1. Gardeners understand this better than most don't they?

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  14. This is getting brutal. Lots of damaged and dead plants for me too. My biggest worry: schefflera taiwaniana. This is its 2nd winter and it’s lost about 1/3 of its leaves.
    Jim N. Tabor

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    1. Oh no! But I bet it bounces back, fingers crossed.

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  15. Oh, Loree - this is so sad! All those agaves... It took me a while to catch on to what the weather this winter was doing, but now I see it everywhere. Every phormium/astelia/cordyline/dracaena/dianella in my garden are melted, and I don't really have hopes for any of them. I checked on my Stachyurus last week, and though the ground was covered in leaves, it still had a lot left, so I decided not to be too concerned. With the current drop in temperature, I'm getting a little worried. But, shrubs may re-sprout with warmer weather. I feel for you - wish agaves could do the same. :(
    We had rabbits around here a few years ago. The damned things chomped off ALL epimedium flowers. I was so mad! Haven't seen much this year, though. I think I have the owl in the park to thank.

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    1. Oh! Owl... hmm. We had one hanging out for a few days in the tall Doug Fir behind us. I hope he got a nice little snack or two!

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  16. Oh that's so interesting about your Agave ovatifolia. Mine has a spot on an inner leaf almost exactly the same. I'll have to show you a picture of it! I might move it to where an americana var franzosinii is currently failing. I know, one would think that doesn't bode well, but I think the ovatifolia is getting way too much afternoon sun and competition where it currently sits.

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    1. I decided to do a little neighborhood wide agave research, there are a lot if icky ovatifolia out there. So sad. Photos coming next week.

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  17. doug BallingerFebruary 04, 2023

    I've got several Agaves looking bad Americana, Porcupine one of my Shark skins, and my Meat claw, and a couple of small "hardy" agaves I got from cold hardy cactus. It sucks but I've been making some changes anyway, so onward to whatever the future garden holds.

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    1. I am so bummed to read this, but you're not alone. It's a very bad year for our agaves. You've got a great attitude!

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    2. doug BallingerFebruary 06, 2023

      I still got a lot of cool agaves that don't look bad so far so I'm happy about that.

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  18. Ugh. That's a lot to handle at once. For me, it's one thing to acknowledge the winter damage. But then it just seems so much worse when there's the random acts of animal savagery added on top of it. It just seems so much more personal when it's bun-bun or a dear deer, which is stupid, but there you go. I get sad with weather damage and angry with animal damage. I'm going to have to mull that one over as I go out in the garden today.

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