Star Trek Weekend in My Garden

No, no, no.  NOT next weekend when the next Star Trek movie comes out.

No, I'm not confused with Star Wars Day from a few weeks ago (May the 4th be with you).

THIS last weekend was Star Trek Weekend in my Garden.  My Asclepias tuberosa (Oragne Butterfly weed) has been up for over a week now.  It's the official last plant to come up in my garden.  Once it's up I go around and see who didn't survive the winter.

This past winter was particularly difficult for plants.  Early on it was a mild winter and early in the spring it got warm and several plants broke dormancy.  Then real winter hit and we were cold and snowy for weeks (months... years???).  Some of the plants that broke dormancy were hit hard by the cold spell.

He's dead, Jim.

Jim, he's dead.

I'm afraid he's dead, Jim.

The Contorted Filbert (Corlus avellana 'Contorta') was not much of a surprise.  I bought it at an end of year sale and it was the most horrifically root bound plant I'd ever seen.  

The Rosa (Don Juan) was a surprise.  It had done well in the past but this year it was dead down to the graft.

The Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora) was also a BIG surprise.   You can see last year's growth.  But down at the soil level the stems were rotted (see second picture).  I'm very dissapointed in this one but it does give me a chance to power wash and re-stain my deck this summer....

I also lost a couple of Agastache but I have plenty of seedlings that I can move around to fill in spaces so that's not a big problem.

I hope you get the Star Trek reference by now.  If not see below.

St