It has been a tough winter here in northern Greece, with temperatures below -10 degrees C for long periods. Most of my potted plants are dead, as well as all my
Pandorea jasminoides, I had six or seven which I have had for several years; they were grown from seeds I found in Mallorca in 2011. There were several large seedpods left on the dead branches, but the seeds are most likely killed by the frost as well. Luckily, I still have two of the seedlings in Norway which are still alive, but I wonder how to transport them to Greece, they are quite big.
Both
Plumbago auriculata bushes and all the
Echium candicans plants I had, are dead as well. I am particularly sad to see that none of the
Salvia discolor plants I had propagated from cuttings from a plant I brought to Norway from Sparoza some years ago didn’t survive, but luckily, I still have the ‘mother’ plant on my window sill in Norway, and I brought several rooted cuttings with me in my suitcase this time.
I haven’t seen a single eucalyptus tree that has survived in the area, and almost all the palms are dead; it was probably a combination of the palm weevil and the frost that killed the palms. Luckily, I never planted any of these.
On the other hand, the lavenders,
Teucrium fruticans, Gaura lindheimeri are fine and one of the
Phlomis fruticosa I had started from seed is soon flowering for the first time this year. Seeing the Judas tree (
Cercis siliqastrum) in full bloom on arrival a few days ago made me forget most of what I had lost this winter. The pink-purple combined with bright yellow is probably not something I would plan on purpose, but it's OK to let Nature decide evey now and then.
P4116011.jpg by
Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr