The old Golden Rain Tree at the Niagara Parks Botanical Garden doesn't have any die back this spring. That should only be some comfort though, GRT is starting to show increased hardiness from natural selection in those more northern locations.

Keep your tree but also try to find a completely hardy one in your region and grab some seeds.

Yes. It has made me change my ideas about what hardy means.

I believe the plant companies use a ten year rating for size on my conifer cultivars. After watching the destruction from this winter I am wondering if they use a ten year rating for hardiness also. Could be source location also. Or perhaps general health of an individual. For example maybe the perfectly healthy Japanese maples made it through the year but ones with 10% stress from soil compaction or drought could not stand a zone six winter.

Who knows, probably a mix of all the above.

From the extent of the damage on things here, including perfectly hardy stuff (i.e. Potentilla), I think there is a mixture of fall damage from sudden onset of cold and the long, hard winter. Although we didn't actually come close to setting any extreme miminums, the cold and wind would not let up. Interestingly, while watching marginal trees and shrubs struggle to leaf out, all my Zone 5 rated perennials survived and are flourishing.

I am still waiting to see if these will leaf out enough to try to save. They are trying.

Metasequoia
Fagus Tricolor
Acer griseum

I will be replacing with known hardy material if these all fail.

One year won't make me rethink things but if it happens again then yes.
I lost very few things and did replace one group with exactly the same variety- I chose them for a reason the first time around and hate to give up on a dream grouping. At least if it happens again I will know that I tried my best.

ginkgonut, my dawn redwoods are in the same boat. One is leafing out and looks fine with minor dieback, the other is suffering and SHOULD make it. I also have some pure (green) european beech, and it looks FINE and HEALTHY.
I think I might give up on redbud though. Too much death and mayhem. Anyone want to suggest a zone 4 seed source?

I almost regretted the Live oak "Late drop" I planted in spring 2012. They did fine last year and have just now today started bud swell enough for me to have no doubts that they will be fine. I was afraid they were dead. The largest one is the one that looks best. I wasn't going to wait much longer, maybe til June 7.

Just made a trip to Ohio (Akron/Canton area) this past weekend. Lots of tree/shrub carnage from (presumably) the cold:

Sweetgums - a LOT of Liquidambars are either dead or only sprouting leaves from 2+ yr old wood. The best looking ones are OK, but most have at least some moderate tip dieback.

Prunus serrulata 'Kanzan' - most have rather sparse canopies and per my father, did not bloom (his didn't - many branches have no leaves but some are sprouting auxilliary leaf buds so it appears it will survive.

Acer palmatum - the Bloodgoods and other upright red-leaved ones appear OK, but a 'Seriyu' my father has has 30-50% tip dieback.

Azaleas - some have some moderate to severe dieback - I was surprised by this one.

Lows never got below about -14F, but there were about 4 total nights at or below -10 and long stretches of well below freezing weather.

My father's neighbor has 3 Quercus phellos. One is dead as a doornail, one looks semi-OK, the other has only some sporadic leaves.

Here in MD I have seen considerable dieback on Lagerstromia.

Also - the handful of Metasequoia I saw in Ohio looked perfectly fine.

What does seem odd is the lateness of leafout in general. Some of the oaks (esp. Q. alba) were *just* in the catkin stage with fuzzy, small leaves. Even last year, when there were 2 freezes there in May, they were nearly in full leaf by this time.

My theory is that the winter was so cold and long, that they were just very deeply dormant and took a while to "wake up".

I lost some perennials that had been really going nice. I'm not sure if I'll replace them with the same thing. I went one zone lower than I usually do for a tree I just planted today. I'm in zone 6 but usually go for zone 5..this tree was zone 4.

I will second what hairmetal has said about Ohio. I was recently visiting family in Cleveland and there is considerable damage. I dont recall sweetgum damage in past severe winters but many are damaged this year. I would add that recently planted acer palmatums, including the hardiest varieties such as bloodgood and inaba shidare appear to have damage in exposed areas. Hollies and boxwoods look horrible in NE Ohio. American dogwood seemed to bloom fairly well, though redbuds were sporadic, IMO. My father lost his 3 blue atlas cedars, having been in the ground 15-20 years. Of his 40 or 50 acer palmatums about half exhibited some damage.

I am not sure what caused such extensive damage because NE Ohio has seen colder temps in the past, but perhaps it was the duration of the cold. I have heard it bottomed out around -18F in Geauga County, but I'm not sure. Zero degrees was reported in the Cleveland area as late as early March. There was also a very quick dip to 16 degrees in mid April after some plants had begun to break dormancy. It seemed as if Ohio could not catch a break from the cold.

The best analog was probably the winter of 1976-1977. Not quite as cold either as to ultimate minimums or average temps for January, at least, but the cold hung on a lot longer into March - in '77 March was actually quite warm. However, I believe there was at least a mild drought during the summer of '77 that we don't appear to be headed for this summer...so the drought probably finished off some plants back then that might have otherwise survived.

I think the March dip to zero made the damage total worse than '77 despite slightly warmer averages and minimums.

I had a lot of plants freeze hard green this past fall. Aug, Sept and Oct here were too warm and wet. Plants I have never seen retain their leaves well into winter, did after the sudden freeze. An extreme event in the fall could be as equally damaging as the possibilities mentioned above.

All 3 of my 8'-10' Crape myrtles killed to the ground. Ditto for 2 out of 3 fringe-trees. Ditto for two 12' x 12' butterfly bushes. And all 3 small hybrid chestnuts (one large one is OK). Easily the most damage since I've been here -- 10 yrs.

Most of those seem alive & sprouting from the base, but it's back to square one even if they survive.

Edit: One 12' Green Giant arb out of nine died outright, but not sure if it was cold, or root-rot, or the neighbor stealthily dumping gasoline on the roots, etc. No others showed any damage...

This post was edited by beng on Fri, May 30, 14 at 10:30

Ilovemytrees, I hope you haven't given up on your golden rain tree yet. My own Koelreuteria 'Rose Lantern' which was planted late last spring and left exposed with no winter protection (except for 2-3 feet of snow at its feet) has survived beautifully. It lost some of the softer new growth it produced late last season ('Rose Lantern' is known for its late bloom and late fall growth which often doesn't have time to harden properly before dormancy), but is otherwise looking great. After surviving this winter, I now have no doubts about its overall hardiness. The few dead twigs on my tree just provided an opportunity for shaping. It has been growing so vigorously that no one would ever guess it was set back at all over the winter.

Beng, check out chestnuts from Oikos or possibly Badgersett. They seem perfectly hardy here in Minnesota (z4). I had very little issue this winter other than they are slow to leaf out and have minor tip dieback.

Wow, Beng, I'm surprised to hear your Fringe Trees died. Aren't they native in your neck of the woods? I've got a couple that didn't suffer any damage and are currently doing what Fringe Trees do best.

Corkball, the chestnuts ARE from OIKOS -- 'Timburrs'. The 12 footer is perfectly fine. The damaged ones are small & weak to begin with. I agree healthy chestnuts would not be bothered by the cold. Overall, I'm not impressed w/my 4 'Timburrs' -- only the one has shown any vigor.

Basic, my Fringetrees have died back to ground several times. The one not affected is blooming like yours right now. All I can think is that their provenance might be from warmer origins or something -- shouldn't be hurt that much by cold here.

Beng, maybe you have Chinese fringe trees?

They are less hardy and "may" die back to the ground in your zone.

The native variety will not die back in zone 6, especially in your temperate zone 6.

BTW, the one good fringetree was under 2 feet of rushing floodwater yesterday, along w/some others in a low spot. About 2" rain from a thunderstorm in 40 min, 2.65" for the day, 4" for June so far.

Whoops -- missed you, whaas. Nope, they're American fringetrees from Forestfarm. At least the 2 damaged are sprouting from the base, as they have done before....

Forestfarm, that explains it, lol.

Why don't you send some of that rain back over here? Down almost 70% in May and just over 1" over the last month. Getting screwed by these scattered rain showers that my area seems to be resistant to. 1 more week and the grass goes dormant.

Of My "late drop" Live oaks. 3 had last winter as their 2nd winter in my yard zone 6 SW Pa. One came back from the roots {{gwi:354385}} One plain out died. And one is in purgatory. Just joking. It isn't dead but it isn't actively living/growing. {{gwi:354389}} {{gwi:354394}} It's a zombie tree, I guess. In the middle pic it has green under the bark, but you can barely see it. I believe it will make it, but it will be after a chunk of the season is past before leafout. If anyone doubts the green under the bark I will try to get a picture with a flashlight shining on it. The top pic is the one that came back from the roots. There are red/pink buds on the one with my hands on the twig showing the bark. I just don't know how long until it starts showing some life beyond some tiny buds and green bark. But if they come to life soon, I will be glad I tried and succeeded with them, thus far. Not knowing how late leaf out and growth will affect them long term. Before finding the patch of green underbark, I was ready to think maybe the pink things weren't buds and it was dead. I sat and looked at this tree for a while trying to decide if it was dead or alive. I had a magnifying glass, too. The top couple limbs sticking up had the most red/pink buds, 3 clustered at the end. But not as many lower down. Usually the tips die before the lower portions. Well, as long as the green trunk is green it is alive, and has lived through last winter, it is going to leaf out somewhere, from the top, bottom or middle. All I can do is wait.

ispahan,

Hi. My Golden Raintree is doing great! Since I pruned off the dead branches back in May, the tree has grown tons of new branches, with leaves popping out all over. Its grown 2 feet already this season. Its weird, to me anyway, that a tree with so much vigor could experience branch dieback, but come back even better than before. Where was the vigor to prevent the dieback?

Anyway, the tree is almost as tall as DD"s swing set, and now looks like a real tree. I'm glad I didn't yank it out of the ground.

I don't think many people in my area will be planting Callistemon (Bottlebrush) anytime soon, because they all turned brown after that hard freeze we had. I know I won't be planting any more marginal palms, it's just too aggravating trying to keep them alive.

Vigor doesn't equate cold hardiness.

I have had harsh winter damage...replaced the same weeping ryusen maple with the same variety. I will be looking to add winter protection from here on out. With stakes and burlap allowing a wind barrier. That said...I also planted a weeping spiral/serpentine cherry which will also get some added protection.

It is not common to have this harsh of winter...if your tree can be spared...I would possibly look into horticultural fleece or burlap and give winter care verses ripping it out of the ground for a possibility of later losing it later. They said it's been 30+ years since we've seen this sort of arctic air and cold. So...I am one if it's survived give it a chance...you may have another 30+ years before it/harsh winters like this past one occurs again. My biggest thing is...just winter protection at the end of fall.

I only use regional native trees and they all made it through just fine. We got down to 5 degrees here and that is the lower limit of our defined zone.