Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

~Mark Twain 

I don't know about you, but with all this unseasonably warm weather I'm itchin' to get out into the garden. The mid-winter pruning is getting done, but night freezes have made the ground rather difficult to work around in my soggy garden. I don't want to create too much soil compaction by tromping around on it. You see, March is one of those in-between months. Usually one foot is still in winter and the other is in spring. This year, however, it's been more like fall into spring, skipping the winter bit all together. Because of the crazy temperature swings, several of my reliable shrubs have not fared well in the constant warm-freeze cycles; one of them being a Fatsia japonica.    

What's left of my Fatsia.

I went out to look at my garden several days ago and found the Japanese aralia looking rather pathetic. Even the leaves that were still green, drooped. It bloomed so beautifully last summer! I coppiced it down to the ground, hoping it comes back. My hydrangeas also took a hit. Instead of pruning, I simply snapped the dead branches off. Snap, snap, snap. New growth is popping up at the base of the mop head, but the aspera... hmmm... I'm not so sure about. And a Rhododendron 'Cilpinense' I had planted in an urn? Dead as can be.  

Now, I live in a micro-climate that has its own weather patterns - 10 degrees colder in the winter or 10 degrees hotter in the summer than surrounding areas - but these plants were in a protected court yard area against the house. They've been fine for years of...er...normal winter weather. The leaves on my deciduous plants never really changed color last fall. They just merrily stayed green until the sudden blast of cold hit last November. Then they all fell off at once or languished as droopy, green slime on the plant. The compound leaves on my Japanese wisteria were also green until the sudden freeze, then drooped, then fell off all at once, leaving a 6" deep pile on my walkway to the front door the night before the Thanksgiving guests showed up. After Thanksgiving it got warm again, then cold, then warm, then cold, then warm. The weather has acted like a carnival huckster trying to confuse the participants with slight-of-hand tricks.

What it all comes down to is the fact that planting zones are only guidelines. Special circumstances (in this case, weather patterns) can have a direct effect on the success of some plants, regardless if the tag indicates the plant can take temperatures down to -30 degrees.  My hardy Fatsia (zone 7) and hydrangeas (hardy in zone 6-7) couldn't handle the wild temperature swings, but my tender, evergreen star jasmine didn't react at all. Be aware of the micro-climates in your garden. Heat and cold sinks within yards of each other do have an effect on the success of your garden. And plants in containers are much more susceptible to the whims of weather. Really, there's no such thing as 'normal' weather anymore, so keep that in mind when planning your garden this year.