Steve - What list? What has survived, what hasn't? I'll be making a full list of what survived the winter next month after the official hard-freeze times are over (there's always frost in April/May). But, like a champ, Mardi Gras has survived with fully-green canes from ground to tip, so we're looking at about 3' (I stop pruning in Sept, in case of a snow in Oct). Looks like I had very few deaths from winterkill this year.. maybe, just maybe, my hard work with all the mulch worked? I know that there's going to be deaths.. that's inevitable. But if I can keep the numbers down to a respectable <20, then I'm happy, considering how pathetically ignorant I was with my poor roses in '10. On a good note: my roses in my pond area (Sterling Silver, Singing the Blues, Stainless Steel, Heirloom) all seem to have survived with very little mulch (less than 2" versus 6"+ on almost everyone else). Same time, they're pretty close to my dryer vent, so maybe with me doing laundry, the warm air helped?
Daffodils do grow wonderfully here if you can put them in sun, which, where I planted them, does not get. I got my very first tulip to blossom last year.. I planted those back in winter '05 when I bought my house. oops. Grape Hyacinthia - can't kill 'em. Various sunflowers do quite quite well, catnip is a weed in my front yard (evergreen, if you can believe that!!). Creeping phlox does quite well, blanket flower (I am not sure on yet), butterfly bushes (smaller ones transplant best, big ones just croak), Russian sage (can anyone kill this? Seriously!), bluebeard (love this!! Has to be in my top 5 plants), campanula (bellflower), honeysuckle (prefer the Japanese types, like Halls), agastache, mums, ... all of these are plants that I have had excellent luck with. Minimal care, drought, extreme temp tolerant.. and pretty flowers!! Yay! My maybes include delphiniums (the taller types), Japanese maples (I don't think I know how to take care of them), butterfly weed (should come back, hopefully), baby lilacs (aphids like these too much), silvermound (let's see if it comes back too), and cranesbill (yes, grew like gangbusters last year, but is it going to come back?).
