Anyone lost anything surprising this winter?

I planted three hakonechloa in one of my borders last summer, put lots of mulch down, they all seemed to grow really well. Checked the other day, two were sprouting lots of new shoots, the third showed no signs of life at all and seemed to show no resistance to me pulling it. The whole plant came out easily and the roots sort of fell apart.

A bit surprised, considering they're supposed to like wet conditions and it looked fine before!

Anyone had any plants they're surprised didn't make it this winter?

 

I had three Nepetas in a row, same age and size, but the one in the middle showed no sign of growth like the others and came out like your Hakonechloa did @Erigeron. They had only been in for one growing season so perhaps not well enough established to cope with too much rain even though they are in sandy, well draining soil.
Such are the puzzles and pleasures of gardening!

 

This last winter certainly up here in Scotland has not been that cold but….wet does not quite describe how the weather has been. Where I live has traditionally been a pretty dry area, not in 2023/4. After many years of gardening I am now totally convinced that many so called tender plants can cope with cold, it is wet conditions which causes much more trouble.
I grow a large number of Meconopsis which if given the right conditions are not that tricky. I was checking a group of them 2 days ago which I had grown from seed a couple of years ago. As if pre planned every third one showed zero signs of life and had rotted off, grr. Same location, same age, same seed yet as plantminded so rightly said “ such are the puzzles and pleasures of gardening”. I cannot say what I said when discovering the loses was quite so polite!

 

Much the same here in France. It's persisted down since last October The worst loss was my favourite Cistus, not just because it was a lovely big shrub that's left a huge gap but, unusually, cuttings didn't take and the nursery that sold it no longer has it on it's list.
The other plant giving concern is a climbing frangipani (Chonomorpha) in the 'conservatory'. A classic case of 'is it too dry or did I water it too much, too early' Can't blame the weather for that one....

 

It's a bit early to really know for sure as I have a number of things that are able to come from below ground, if the top goes over the winter, but these may not come back til mid summer.
Have definitely lost Dahlia merckii even though it was in a pot in the cold greenhouse. Also have a sick Buddleja cordata that has lost two stems, that maybe down to the wet weather.

 

Hello @noisette47 I'm in France too, Dordogne.

I've lost 3 shrubby blue salvias which isn't surprising, the garden is so wet. The surprising thing is that one has survived.

 

Hello Busy-Lizzie A fellow escapee to a better climate? Ha! And the French say that it rains all the time in UK.....

 

No not this winter, the one before it was really cold and frosty so i lost some verbena bonariences but they can't always be hardy.
But some things are late so i wouldn't worry at the moment.

 

Hello @Logan, I remember you and your beautiful dogs from GW.

 

Hello @Busy-Lizzie how are you?and thanks, still got 2 dogs, at the moment they've got a heamatoma in the ear flap but slowly going down.

 

My Eomecon chionantha seems to have succumbed this year ; searched yesterday amongst the spreading fern Blechnum penna-marina with which it has co-existed for many years .

 

I think that if I'd invested a lot of time growing them from seed @hailbopp, my choice of words would have been a bit more robust

Over winter, the soil in many of my borders has developed a greenish cap, a precursor to moss, which is very unusual on my shallow sandy soil. I have spent years experimenting with drought tolerant plants, which is why I grow many grasses. Now, with moist soil, may be I should try some bog plants!

 

Can't win @Plantminded , there may be a drought after all this rain!

 

That's what keeps us on our toes @Busy-Lizzie . (I like your new avatar by the way!)

 

Thank you @Plantminded my own photo from my old garden, edited to fit in a square.