Wait. Have patience. Do nothing.
Hard advice for a gardener to follow, but follow we must. This harsh winter brought a number of plants to their knees. Some, like the hydrangeas, died to the ground — all of the top growth was gone. Others, namely several evergreen shrubs of Osmanthus fortunei ‘UNC’, lost most of their leaves and looked like bare-stemmed corpses.
Wait. Have patience. Do nothing.
When plants have suffered severe winter die-back, they must be allowed time to recover. One of my favorite garden writers, Henry Mitchell, advised waiting several months — a year for tender shrubs — before signing the death certificate. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait that long. Within a month all were showing new growth. Didn’t lose a one. They were down but not out.
Moreover, some plants didn’t suffer at all — in fact, they never looked better. My last post celebrated a few. Here are a few more top-performing, winter-defying reds:
Remember Rhododendron ‘Francesca’ in bud? Her flowers are equally lovely.
Deciduous azalea, Rhododendron ‘Arneson’s Ruby Princess’, looked OK in 2013, but this year she was an attention-grabbing knockout in both bud and flower.
Ditto for award-winning peony, Paeonia ‘America’.
And my go-to container annual, the glorious Begonia ‘Encanto Red’, is off to a fine start.
Encanto Red will bloom non-stop until frost. See photo below taken in October last year. Something to look forward to.