Counting the survivors--west beds

The real winners in this whole part of the garden were the damned weeds; I keep sort of forgetting that here in the temperate rainforest, the weeds grow ALL WINTER LONG.

Crocus Rose and The Generous Gardener appear to revving up for a vigorous year.  I was going to do a comprehensive pruning and trellising in February, per the video, but there really was not a day it wasn't raining, and also I realized I needed a much better (larger, stronger) trellis than any I had on hand or could readily acquire.  I bought a bundle of cedar 1x2s and will be building a trellis any day now (hah) but I think it's probably too late to do the comprehensive pruning this year. 

The hollies get a special round of applause for being the most durable and patient shrubs imaginable.  They do need some pruning, and I think if I stay on top of things (hah) I can keep them comfortably fitting in their space.

For the perennials, here's the win/loss columns:

Yea	??	Nay
All the herbs	Acanthus Mollis	Artemesia Silver Mound
Prof. Kippenburg	Gaura Gaudi Red	Penstemon Pocahantes and Blackbird and Thorn
Jacobs Ladder		Moroccan Daisy
Monarda		All the salvias (no surprise)
Foxgloves (yay!)		Osteospermum Lavender Mist
Sun roses (both ends)
Coreopsis Daybreak
Geranium Biokovo
Potentilla William Rollison and Pikes Peak and Monarchs Velvet
Echinacea Pow Wow
Anemone Sept. Charm and Fantasy Cinderella and Honorine Jobert

Obvious takeaway is that the potentillas and anemones proved hardier than the penstemons.   Also, there is a LOT of empty real estate in this bed on the north side <gleefully rubbing hands>.

I will leave the catastrophe that is the north bed to another day and another post.

Also, the magnolia is dying of anthracnose blight.  Which will give me a chance to put a nice little crabapple in there. 

Counting the survivors--stuff on the patio

Actually, most things came through the winter remarkably well, considering it got down into the low teens several days in a row in January.

• The daphne, bless it, keeps soldiering along, will be covered with bloom very soon, and really needs and deserves to be potted up this summer.
• The hebe that I got somewhere last fall had a rough time of it and is mostly, but not entirely, dead.  I'll prune it and see how it does.
• Sharifa Asma is starting to put out growth, yay!  I read an article somewhere this winter that gloomily discussed its incredible propensity for disease, and might I just say I WISH somewhere was some kind of even semi-authoritative reference on the disease-proneness of the various David Austin roses in various climates?  Thank you and good night. 
• The bay appears to have scale (of course) and has not grown a millimeter, which I guess is not a surprise.
• Kalmia latifolia is thriving and looks like it should bloom soon.
• There's an evergreen something-or-other mycrophylla whose tag I have lost, but who seems to be doing fine. (I think a cotoneaster?)
• The rosemary barberry (berberis x stynophylla Irwinii) that I bought on impulse at Lael's is swell, but still very mossy on its branches, and I should clean it off with a tweezers at some point.
• And the Japanese maple is fine, but I need to make up my mind whether it stays or goes, and also see if its barrel is rotting out on the bottom.
• I will need to decide what to put in the planter right soon -- that might be a good place for various annuals.

Soon we'll have to have the pergola-raising party!

HOLD THE PHONE!!

...and Jesus take the wheel!!!

The peony ...

...is...

ALIVE! 

As you know, Bob, that peony was one of the very first plants I bought and put in the ground (along with Just Joey [sob] and that wacky Frieda clematis).  Sometime in the next year or two I idiotically put the rock rose right in front of it, and it got totally smothered year after year, and I was absolutely certain it had given up.

But last year I *finally* hacked down the rock rose, and I was just out weeding and surveying the mess, and my hand to god, there is the peony pushing sturdily up out of the ground and basking in the sun.

(Surrounded by weeds, to be sure, just like everything else in this friggin' garden) (and also the rock rose stump is staging a vigorous comeback attempt and will need to be grubbed out by someone whose back is stronger than mine).  

And also BY GOD, my generally worthless memory has offered up the fact that this peony is Athena:

  

I will be very happy, needless to say, if it blooms anything like this.

Anyway, I thought this deserved its own entry.  <beaming all over my face>  

First, the fall/winter...

So.  A difficult winter for several reasons:

• It was one of the longest, WETTEST, coldest winters in at least recent PNW history.
• Things at work got, let us say, challenging.
• The Prozac crapped out on me, but I didn't realize it for quite a while, attributing my slowly-deepening depression to--
• THE FUCKING ELECTION FUCK FUCK FUCK.

 But returning focus to matters of the garden and household, some items of note:

• Sharifa Asma actually had several blooms (small but lovely) before winter set in!
  

And, um.  Actually, I think that might be it?  The depression really clobbered me when it came to even *thinking* about the garden.

On the upside, though, after a gruesome experiment with Cymbalta, I'm on Lexapro and it seems to be working well!  (Hence my posting here.)

Onward to spring!