Pics will follow later.

This winter saw a low of only ~ -26C or so, which is not bad for the Kingston area. However, I'm seeing more damage on my plants then in some colder years. Maybe it was the lack of snow or the late cold? As we all know plants peak in hardiness in late December/early January and I wonder if the prolonged cold into late March caused more damage?

The bamboo, despite snow cover, is nearly 100% top killed. The exceptions are F. rufa (complete leaf kill), and F. nitida (mostly leaf killed, but no stem kill even on seedlings).

My Southern magnolias have decided to drop all their leaves. There does not, however, seem to be any vascular tissue damage. Deciduous magnolias took a beating from drought last year so my M. tripetala are regrowing from secondary meristem tissue.

Hollies look ok. My I. aquipernyi which looked good earlier in the spring has some vascular tissue damage so despite having mostly green leaves through the winter it is now looking very dry and will have some stem kill. Ilex pendunculosa look 100% fine, they really are excellent BLEs for cold areas. I now have 1 remaining American holly. It's 1.5 feet tall and scraggly, but overwinter with 90% green leaves.

My Yucca which looked very good are mostly OK. Lots of seedlings came through OK. I lost my Y. pallida and the trunking Y. alofolia hybrid 'Southcoast Yucca" was top killed. Surprisingly, I had one larger seed grown Y. gloriosa that looks to have escaped with less damage than Y. filamentosa (which has leaf damage).

The cactus garden has been ravaged by rot. I did not fungicide in the fall nor the early spring. Mistake. Lesson learned. I've lost maybe 20% of the plants with ~25% having significant rot.

Other BLEs, including Rhodos and Kalmia seem fine. Should be an excellent year for blooms. Aucuba hymilaica had leaf kill and some stem kill but seems to recovering well. I wonder if this one might prove half-hardy? I also found another Aucuba that had overwintered inside one of my palm houses. I've moved it to a location beside the banana, might be able to get a few more winters... It's not ornamental, just interesting to get it through the winter in such a cold zone.

Musa basjoo overwintered 3 stems, the largest at about 1' tall. Not bad for zone 5!

Palms. I lost Sabal minor 'Brazoria' and S. 'Birmingham'. Just too cold for them I guess... Well that and I think a vole decided to hollow out the 'Brazoria' to make a 'nest'. Sabal minor seedlings in the same enclosure had leaf burn but are alive. I made another mistake with some of my other palms. I took the house covering my needle and another minor off in the middle of March. The temperature must have hit -10C at least some nights... Anyway the minor has some leaf damage, and the needle had 2-3 stems pull spears and lots of leaf burn. Whoops. I've treated with fungicide but in my experience needles do not tend to regrow when they pull a spear:(

Recently planted:
Yucca brevifolia (from Adam)
Yucca glauca 'turnking form' (from Adam)
Fargesia scabrida. Will it be tough enough?
Phyllostachys atrovaginata. hardy?
A huge Needle palm
Another S. minor. A 5 gallon plant this time...

Thanks, pics will follow later.