On Mar 7, 10:28*am, eggplant
wrote:
Hi everyone. Hope you've had a good gardening weekend. *SO here's my
question.

It was a pretty atrocious winter. Here in S/W Kerry we had the most snow
and the longest periods of frost since the sixties. *Can you help me
make a hard decision on whether my penstemmons failed to survive the
winter or whether I need to be more patient?

There is absolutely no green anywhere and the twigs I have broken off
snapped off cleanly - brittle with no bend at all. I'm more than a bit
ticked as they're four years old. *Does anyone feel they might bounce
back with more time. Its really hard staring at dead plants. *Thanks for
the advice.

--
eggplant

I'll vote for patience...I'm in Oregon and my garden took a beating
this winter too. We had prolonged record sub-freezing temps, snow and
hit a low of 9 degrees which burst pipes all over town. At first look
my Penstemons (Sour Grape & Apple Blossom varieties) looked stone
dead.

Made a note to pull them, but when I went back to actually clean the
beds a week or two later, way down at the bottom of the very dead
stems I found the tiniest little green leaf buds. Have had them die
way back before and as long as there's a spark there, they seem to
recover and bloom vigorously. No harm in giving them a bit of time.

Nancy T