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After this unusually hard winter in the Central and Eastern United States, has anybody on here lost any plants out of their landscaping(trees and shrubs), also how severe if any damage has been noted on your plants such as trees shrubs or other plants? Here in the Indianapolis area, here is my assessment so far:
Blue Atlas Cedar: Died
Golden Deodar Cedar- Same as Blue Atlas Cedar
Euonymus Japonica Aureamartinatus(The Golden Euonymus)_some appear quite dead all the way down with no signs of life now in late March, others appear to be about half to two thirds damaged(Some tiny plants were about 1/2 to 2/3 top killed with the bottom 1/3 to 1/2 appearing to be relatively intact or still evergreen and alive)
Nellie Stevens Holly: Appears that more than 95 percent of this shrubs leaves are either defoliated or dead brown and brittle(I am not sure whether or how much of this shrub has been damaged or killed by this year's severe cold spells, neither do I know how much will come back to life and leaf back out once the weather warms back up permanently)
Southern Magnolia, Bracken's Brown Beauty: One 12 to 14 foot tall sapling has about 50 to 75 percent of its leaves sunburnt and tattered in appearance, and the other which is about the same size has more than 70 percent of its leaves winter burnt.
Other Specimens of southern Magnolia through out the city of Indianapolis proper have suffered from complete leaf brown out and have near 100 percent leaf burn while others have little more than 50 percent leaf burn.
Varigated Liriope Muscari Grass: More than 50 percent burn and brown out on some plants to complete burn on other younger Liriope Muscari Grass plants.
That is my assessment of plant damage and death from the 8th coldest and the snowiest winter on record in Indianapolis for the winter of 2013-2014
It is too early for me to tell. I will have to wait until it gets warm enough. I have had evergreens lose all their leaves in the past and still be alive. My weeping blue atlas cedar looks like crap, but I do see some not brown needles, so we shall see.
I'm not over there now, but I was told that my August Beauty Gardenia has some leaf burn. My experimental pomegranate may have some dead branches as well.
The good news is that the newly planted Sweet Olive and camellias are all OK. Sorry to hear of the OP's S. Magnolias, mine are doing fine but I'm in a lower latitude. Perhaps this cold winter debacle will help identify an extremely hardy individual S. Magnolia tree. From there, you could propgate it..
@RoaminRebel, thank you for your advice about finding a hardy individual for propagation, I believe you also posted in a separate thread I posted on this forum named "Northern-most Sightings of Cold Tolerant Southern Magnolia Varieties", Just to let you know that What happens to the two specimens that I have been tracking they have yet to defoliate/flush the brown burnt leaves off(leaves still seem firmly attached to trees) I check the buds on both trees(as many as I had time to do so in 5 or so minute stop and step outside my car outside and all the buds were soft and flexible(I was told that means those branches are still alive, aside from that, the last years growth appears a bright chartreuse color, also possibly indicating live branches, so as far as I am concerned, with the bitter cold(the kind that would do further damage anyways), is gone until next winter at least, I at this time feel that these two Southern Magnolias(Bracken's Brown Beauties I believe) appear they will survive and be o.k. if even with lots of defoliation before they refill in with new leaves.
Too early to tell, but I'm pretty sure all my rosemary bit the dust. Also, winter has meant the deer were visiting more than usual and I think they may have nibbled some azaleas beyond the point of being able to return.
Noticed as I was taking a walk today a rather unique looking dead coniferous tree saplings that looked sort of like a red cedar only more open habit and then I realized I had to add to my plant loss inventory., Buh Bye Leyland Cypress: these young Cypress Trees were obviously planted in a
Relatively Brand New Home Owners Association Development in Noblesville, Indiana, the homes themselves were huge and extremely ritzy, and I feel the development itself is not more than 5 to 8 years old, but these young trees were purchased from the local Lowe's Gardening Center and Was since told that those trees have been shipped in from a distant and discordant zone way the heck down in Tennessee, No wonder they didn't survive Central Indiana's Winter Weather, BUH BYE LEYLAND CYPRESS!!! Needless to say, I also noticed exotic shrubs for sale(spring and summer 2013 at Lowe's) such as Dwarf Nandina Firepower TM, Sky Pencil Hollies, Otto Luyken Cherry Laurels, Nellie Steven's Hollies, and Foster's Hollies; CrepeMyrtles(Several Varieties were being sold all over the Indianapolis area but I believe Pink Velour and Centennial Spirit were the 2 most common varieties I saw Lowe's Carrying) and Heavenly Bamboo. God Forbid that after among the top 10 coldest winters ever in the Indianapolis area and with the record breaking snowfall Indianapolis has seen, I highly and sincerely doubt that very few, if any, of the above plant species survived this winter either; go figure, just goes to show how crazy and unpredictable Indianapolis area weather can be at times. I know of a Nellie Stevens Holly that was planted in Indianapolis in a TGI Fridays Restaurant Parking Lot last summer, and I feel It too has Failed and is Dead; I TOTALLY DOUBT That ANYTHING will Be Coming Back on that Holly Shrub, after assessing its appearance around St. Patrick's Day, Totally Burnt Browned Out and Dead Leaves which were crispy and brittle to the touch, need I say more, I also noticed that the Origin was from the same Lowe's store which also happened to be carrying Foster Holly Shrubs(These are just as tender as the Nelly's maybe even more so than the Nellie Steven's; UNBELIEVABLY LUDICROUS that LOCAL People were FOOLISH enough to buy at least some of what a CORPORATE RUN BIG BOX STORE WAS SELLING LAST YEAR. I Hope that this Same Lowe's Selling Fiasco doesn't Happen Again for 2014.
Last edited by Isleofpalms85; 03-22-2014 at 06:44 PM..
Even though we had a four-day stretch in Denver where it was below zero at night and highs in the single digits, all my boxwoods (two varieties) look perfect, two varieties of Holly look great, Euonymus Japonicus browned and lost its leaves, but is currently budding throughout (won't be damaged), Ink Berry looks fine as well as Euonymus moonshadow groundcover looks fine.
The only damage I expect is on my rose bushes (they'll need a good pruning of dead branches) and I have some sort of clumping bamboo that dies back close to the ground if it gets too cold, but always comes back.
Uh oh I put my pieris japonica in a pot last year because I didn't know where to put it. The leaves were kind of a bleached yellow after the horrible winter we had this year. Probably dry because it could not get water...ugh I'm evil. Anyway, I transplanted it into the ground a few days ago and It is either dead or has a LOT of dieback.
The stem nearer the root showed a TINY bit of moist and green, but I cut a couple of stems and they seemed totally dry. Only time will tell, I guess. But if not...that's death #1.
Just today at the Indianapolis Museum of Art I saw a Handful of Southern Magnolia Trees, 3 of those trees were planted in as such as to have some protection from cold winter winds, mind you and the 3 with partial protection were a good 15 to 20 feet in height and they all had more than half of their leaves browned out/bronzed/ and or burnt on the more exposed parts of those trees, and the 4th Southern Magnolia May Have some crown die-back/top kill from total exposure(this Magnolia Grandiflora had no protection from the winter winds) to the unusually harsh winter weather Indianapolis saw this past winter, I would say the top 12 to 18 inches may need to be trimmed back, and I must say that the 4th Southern Magnolia also seemed to have narrower leaves than the other 3 cultivars(Don't know what variety the totally unprotected Magnolia is), and the 4th Magnolia's leaves were almost completely browned out/bronzed or winter burned in addition to the 12 to 18 inches of winter kill up at the top of the tree( the leader/crown branches)hope they catch the die-back and trim it back soon. The 4th tree, excluding the top kill, is probably about 12 to 15 feet tall just for additional information.
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