Sunday
We have FINALLY had a good weather day here. A bit windy, but sunny and high in the 50s. Even though I have plenty of things to occupy my time inside, I was going a little bit stir crazy with the continuous crappy weather. This is the time of year you think you will be in your gardens, so that was more the trigger for going stir crazy than anything.
I took advantage of the last few days by getting a start on updating the alive/not alive status of plant records in my database. I went through all 2300+ records and marked those that I knew off the top of my head that were no longer alive. Sad to say that the number came out to about 750. I am already starting to see trends.
Many of that total were the first plants that I purchased back in the 1990s when I was initially starting out with gardening and very naive about it all. There are a few that have survived though, going on 30+ years now. Those just warm my heart.
There are plants that I have liked and tried numerous times that I just don't have any success with at all. Most people tend to give up after three attempts. From my records I can see that I have given about ten attempts before I call it quits, but even then I may keep trying anyway 
Agastaches, anemones, astrantias, digitalis purpurea... I may have too much shade for agastaches, but even when I've planted them in full sun they never reappear the following year. All purchased cultivars of japanese anemones, except one, have completely disappeared. 'Mont Blanc', the one which is still alive, was purchased in 2012 and had actually disappeared for many years, making a reappearance about 3 years ago. How crazy is that? I've tried the Pretty Lady series, 'Pretty Lady Diana', 'Pretty Lady Emily', 'Pretty Lady Julia', as well as others like 'Pamina', 'Queen Charlotte', and 'September Charm' readily found in the nurseries. There is a noid pink anemone which has been passed along from a fellow gardener from DC at our Mid Atlantic swaps that is absolutely thriving though. From a few plants, it has grown into a nice swath that blooms in the early fall. As far as astrantias, I won't be trying those anymore. In theory they should do really well in my shade conditions, but I've never had luck with a single one, ever. And digitalis purpurea is one I will keep trying for as long as it takes. It is such a favorite. I'm stubbornly optimistic that I will get it right at some point.
Then there are plants that I seem to have a 50-50 percent type success rate with, such as astilbes, camellias, clematis, dicentras, ferns, polemoniums, pulmonarias, rhododendrons,... I have no idea what triggers the success or non success of most of these. With ferns, I've noticed that the native ferns fair better, as do the japanese painted ferns. The named cultivars are the ones that seem to have more failures. Same with polemoniums - the straight polemonium reptans is prolific but any named cultivar has completely died out. The dicentras are a puzzler. They had been very dependable, returning year after year for 20 years or more, but at least half have started to disappear.
Another whole group can actually be thought of as short lived perennials. For me, this includes aquilegia and dianthus. From my records, I can see that I purchase a few of each every single year. They are fairly cheap at the amish nursery, so in my mind I think of them as consumables that are worth the money. If they last two or three years, great, but I'm not that disappointed if they don't.
Oh, and I have a deer problem 
Hostas were a big casualty, as were hemerocallis, hydrangeas, phlox paniculata, tricyrtis, ... Several young trees were obliterated by deer rub too. I have changed my gardening strategy to acquire only plants that the deer tend to leave alone, and either protect or pass along anything still alive after the deer damage.
The most depressing group are the plants that I acquire, full of optimism, that never make it out of the staging area for one reason or another. Life happens. Unexpected things take priority. It has happened on and off over the years, but the worst case was in 2022. After my parents passed away in the winter, I really went overboard with the spring amish nursery spree. I thought that I would have an abundance of gardening time that I hadn't had in years of caregiving. Then my brother switched gears on me about getting the house on the market - not the leisurely "give it a year" timeframe that was initially discussed. I wasn't happy about it, but it was what it was. I had to devote months to it. Most of the plants from that spring spree didn't survive.
On a much happier note, what really stands out are the plants that have nearly 100 percent success rate year after year, except for a very few single instances. Galanthus, calycanthus, digitalis grandiflora, hellebores, hyacinths, paeonia, and narcissus are what come to mind. The only fail with narcissus was the Daffodil Trail concept of 2002 and 2003. This was a project that I remember very fondly because Mike helped me plant a few thousand bulbs along a logging trail behind the house. We had glorious weather and a good rhythm with the planting - he would drill holes while I laid back and basked in the fall sun, and then I would plant the bulbs in the holes while he laid back and basked in the fall sun. It was one of the few times that he truly enjoyed helping me with gardening stuff. The concept was fun, but not practical - way too much shade for those bulbs to thrive and way too many fall leaves that accumulated in thick mats on top of them. Never did have much time back then for the maintenance needed to rake away the leaves, and they eventually completely died out. The only paeonia fail was a group of four from a 2019 purchase that I am pretty sure were flooded out with an overabundence of rain one year. They were directly in the path of excess water flowing down the hill from the front porch landing area. The only hyacinth fail was when a lot of new hardscaping work was being done where I had planted them, and most were casualties to back hoe digging. All in all though, all of these are, and should remain, go tos for me. Hellebores and paeonias are pricey, but with the success rate and longevity, it is a lot of bang for that buck.
Now that I've made a first pass at it by sitting at my computer during the rainy and cold weather, I'm armed and ready to start verifying the rest. I did get outside to verify more narcissus ids a few evenings ago while it was still light outside. It was cold and even though I was very satisfied to be making more ids, I was more than happy to get back inside.
With the much better weather today, I spent my time clearing out the accumulated fall leaves in the deer fenced in Hosta Haven. Very slow going with lots of breaks, but then Bonnie showed up and of course it went fast with her help. So, that garden is spruced up and I was ecstatic that the slate markers I put in last year are 100% accounted for - no displacement or disappearances and the labels from my Brother P-Touch label maker haven't faded a bit.
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