As a general rule my tiny city courtyard garden has one advantage in that it doesn’t suffer too much frost damage. Yet, even in the bitterly cold spell early in the year, which was far colder than usual, it was not the potted trees that suffered (Fig, Olives etc).
I don’t tend to put fleece around anything planted into the beds, being of the opinion that if they can’t survive were they are then they shouldn’t be there. I seldom lose very much because I am usually quite careful about putting things out.
The two shrubs that suffered the most were on the same corner of a bed where the wind does tend to nip but in the summer is a sun-baked spot that Mediterranean plants love. One was a lovely pink cistus and the other a luscious rosemary that have thrived there for several years. Both are badly frosted and looking really sorry for themselves. I hope the cistus may be savable as a thumb nail scraped on the stems shows green, telling me that the sap is running. I shall give it a few weeks to see if it survives. But I did take the precaution snagging some cuttings in the autumn so all is not lost. Two other cistus – one of them of the same type and housed in a pot in the far more exposed front garden – have not suffered at all. Sometimes there is no explaining why certain spots are more prone to frost than others.
The rosemary, I am sad to say, is probably a gonna. I suspect even hard pruning back to the leaf growth will not save it when just one solitary branch retains any green, while the rest is completely brown. In the absence of anything to replace it at this moment I shall try cutting back but I am fully prepared to yank it out if needs be.
Another minor casualty is a yellow everlasting wallflower that caught the frost ut only its windward side and is salvageable.
You might have noted in an earlier post on pelargoniums that I have three cuttings thriving and ready to take over later in the year.
The top of the white jasmine where it was exposed to wind is a little sad but new growth is already coming through so no problems there – as is the rampant passion flower which will always benefit from some cutting back in any case.
Jan Edwards 