Cold Winters & Plant Hardiness

The Herald Sun's recent article about the winter of 2009/2010 confirmed my suspicions. This was one of the coldest winters on record, in fact the 6th coldest winter in the Durham area since records were kept back in the 40's. In addition to the cold we received around 7 inches of snow when our average is slightly over 2 inches. This winter there were days on end when the rain garden was nothing but a water filled bog. This is a large deviation from the years since it's planting when we have had below normal rainfall and water passed through and filtered down in less than 3 hours. All the plants did extremely well under the drier conditions.

My inspection yesterday showed that the grasses are sending up new shoots, as are the Aquilegia, Sedum and Siberian Iris. A few more warm days and I'll check again.

Brave Little Shoots

It's hard to believe but as I inspected the rain garden today, there poking through the dried brown foliage were tiny green leaves on the sedums, the iris and the spiderwort.

This winter is a real test for our rain garden. As I have indicated in my book, The Rain Garden Handbook, certain plants will tolerate 'wet feet'. How wet for how long is the important question. So as we finally move into the spring season, I'll begin to list those plants that have made it through the wettest winter I can ever remember in the Carolinas. I think there will be some surprises as plants I have listed as preferring drier soil conditions seem to have survived the constant state of muck we've just had.

But first, the weatherman cautiously predicts another winter weather event for our area for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. How many pictures can one take of a snow covered rain garden? I hope that I am done for this year.