Hehe, it will literally be a treasured show piece.
It's planted in the center of my center focal point bed, so it is essentially at the epicenter of my beds.

Now since I gave it that spot, Murphy's Law says it will magically revert to normal overnight soon.

Just keep cutting out any normal growth. Might want to use a sharp pair of scissors, or something similar.

Is cutting better than pinching to prevent reversion? I have just been doing the finger spin thing to remove any regular spots.

I started using something sharp to cut the unwanted growth off. It seemed to cause less damage the the crested parts.

Okay, thanks! Will do.

I really look forward to seeing how it does for you. Keep us posted with photos.

Hello again all!

I've found good news and bad news.
The good news is I am finally almost done with creating beds for the year (only one more to go). I have also gotten the majority of the planting done for the year.
AND I bought some new semps today.

The bad news is that most of what I bought today was to replace what I lost last year. I was finally able to do a tally, and I lost over half my semps over the brutal winter. Thankfully, I planted all cultivars in many places so I really didn't totally lose too many cultivars overall, just individual plants. Still, it's a bummer. I did lose what were some of my faves like Red Lion, Royal Ruby, Ruby Heart, Pilioseum, and a few others.

Anyway, back to the pics!




Blue Pearl Sedum


I also got a cool Black Scallop Ajuga that no matter how I took the pic, I couldn't do it justice.


Here are some random pics from around the beds.

Beautiful plants you have there. Thanks for sharing

Wonderful photos.

J.C. great photos. It is good news that you didn't loose complete cultivars, still some hanging on. Have you figured out what made the difference in survival rates between growing sites. Was it soil, not enough snow cover?

Thanks all!

Any advice would be appreciated.
Lynn, I can't say for a fact the differences in survival rates. I'd say it's a combination of a great many factors, like soil, siting, sun, shielded mini zones etc., and all depending on specific cultivars. Also, it is hard to predict what our winters will be like. Sometimes they are really dry, sometimes (like last year) they are a waterlogged mess.
I'm going to go for a really harsh soil mix this year. I thought the soil combo I used was fast draining enough, but I'm going to try even moreso this year.
Then of course next winter will be bone dry...

Better fast draining than not fast enough. You can always give them water when they need it, but impossible to remover to much water. Sounds like you are playing the part of Sherlock. You will find the answer.

Hehe, thanks.
Very true, Lynn. I had time today, so I planted the semps I got yesterday with a more harsh soil. I guess only time will tell...

Photos, pleeeeease.

I'm still waiting to count how many I lost over the winter. Know I lost most that were in troughs and some in the groud too. Guess I'll stick with the ones that are doing well and just keep multipling them.

Seems like we all take turns having bad winters where we experience semp loss. Sometimes there just isn't any way to avoid it, especially with the erratic weather the entire country has been experiencing. Last weekend we had temps in the low 70s, this morning was 26 deg. and everything covered in frost.

good thing you got those orders out...

We are back down to our normal range of temperatures for this time of year. The 70's & 80's are gone, the highs are in the 50's and lows in the upper 30's at night. The new semp babies are glad of the cooler temps and sprinkles of rain.

Summer was just teasing us.

Lynn, I will post some recent pics of at least last year's projects soon. I just need to figure out how to photograph the beds properly since my camera can't do panoramic shots. They will be mainly just showing the beds I've been building and not really the plants, since a ton of bulbs haven't sprouted yet. I also haven't received some plant orders yet, nor have I moved my agaves etc. back outside into the ground yet.

Susan, sorry to hear that you lost a bunch of semps too. I'm still learning what can survive in my area as well.

Chris, yeah I'm about tired of this crazy weather!