Turned To Mush

There was significant freeze damage. It was very hit or miss. Some things got zapped and some didn't and it very much fell along plant species lines. Some plant species took the sudden freeze with a low of 20 in stride and others got zapped.

Any Asiatic lily that had poked its head up did not fair well.

My new Ostrich Fern with the unfurling fresh green fronds is mush. It came from Asheville in a state of  growth. None of the other ferns up here had begun to grow so they are fine. I expect next year it will be more in sync. It should start over with a more sparse batch of fresh fronds.

The Bleeding Heart is toast. I have no idea if it will try to grow again. It was a bit of a surprise. You kind of expect things that come up and bloom early as habit to be a bit hardier than that.

The ornamental rhubarb is flattened.

I was most sad to see that all the Angelica gigas got hit. We had a bumper crop this year and I was looking forward to the late summer show. My hope is only the outer leaves got hit and the center core and growing point survived. Time will tell. Angelica is a biennial so if they got completely frozen it's all over.

The creeping phlox was unfazed. Even the open blooms look fine.The hosta, astilbes and daylilies, a main crop in the wild cultivated gardens all took a hard hit. They will all grow back, but a hard freeze like this makes for less robust plants for the season, particularly the hosta and astilbe. I don't think you can kill daylilies even with dynamite.

The gardens will grow out of this freeze and grow on to their usual chaotic abundance. All this carnage is a bummer though. The gardener always hopes for the perfect conditions and unlimited success. This kind of killing spring happens often enough, and I have only been here for seven springs, that you can't get to worked up about it or you will drive yourself mad.

It just better not happen again this year. Then I will be pissed.