Lets hope

Beautiful home and beautiful gardens, Evey! If the photos above were taken in your "off" season, then I can only imagine how beautiful everything is during the "on" season!! \
You only think you have weeds in your gardens. Come to my house and I'll show you weeds-LOL. I spent 3 hours weeding yesterday and I still only did about 1/3 of my hummingbird/butterfly bed. That doesn't count the flower beds in the front yard. :o(( I'm getting there, though, little-by-little.

Right there with ya' on the weeding! I thought the winter chill would have killed some things off, but nope! The weeds and the bugs are all coming back with a vengeance! *sigh*

The front flower beds are coming along well and all except the shade garden have rebounded quite well. Unfortunately, almost the entire area around the courtyard is dead... Xanadu philodendrons, papyrus, elephant ears, Birds of Paradise, lots of ferns, all the naturalized begonias, even the lysimachia... all gone. Literally, anything you see in the photos for posts 4227 (http://cubits.org/Clematis/thr...) and 4231 (http://cubits.org/Clematis/thr...) above is dead except the trees. =( I can't decide whether to replace them or find new plants. I've lived in Louisiana my entire life and know this winter was one for the record books... but is it a trend that will continue or a once-in-lifetime fluke? I'm a little timid to replant with my favorites only to have them freeze to death again next winter!

That's so sad about your plants, Evey. Don't give up, though. I am sure you can get plenty of replacement plants at the Mid-South RU at Jeri's in May if you are planning on attending.

Up here in central Arkansas our plants are hardier as we do have colder winters than you normally do but nothing like they have in the northernmost regions of the U.S. We did have a worse winter than normal, too, but everything I have appears to be coming back. Almost all of my plants are showing green leaves pushing up from the roots except for those that normally are later in coming back, such as the Mexican Petunias. However, the EE's haven't shown any sign of life yet, so they may not make it back.

Evey, I won't be in too much of a hurry to dig everything up. I bet some of the things like the

Susan, that's why I checked roots. If the roots are completely rotted through, like on many of the tropicals, then there's no hope. If any plant showed even the slightest sign of viability in the roots, it's staying put for a while... just to see if any green makes an attempt to appear.

I love your gardens, Evey! The roses and sasanquas are so beautiful! Love it all.

Thanks, Janice. The shade gardens and the area by the courtyard are in transition at this point... most of the plants there did not come back after our harsh winter. It looks rather barren, and totally yellow from oak pollen, at the moment. It's an odd sight with the starkness where it's normally beautiful, and beautiful along the previously stark fenceline now that the clems are leafing out and blooming. Changes, changes!

Evey, Love your garden. Where did you purchase the metal trellis's in the cali garden? Love them.
Arlene

So, Evey, when will you start posting photos of this year's spring and summer growth so we can see what effect last winter had on your lovely gardens? I love before and after photos!