Winter’s fingerprints all over rash of plant thefts

There’s a rash of plant thefts happening in southeastern Wisconsin. Gardeners throughout the area are finding that plants have gone missing, and the only signs that they once existed are plant labels or perhaps a collection of crunchy sticks.

The culprit is not a roving band of thieves but a much more insidious foe — a Wisconsin winter. And in some cases, the damage is just beginning to come to light.

It’s likely that a combination of factors made this winter particularly hard on plants. A stretch of cold weather occurred when there was little snow on the ground to protect plants. And even though the coldest temperatures in the area were not record breaking, without a blanket of snowy insulation they can have dire effects on plants that are otherwise hardy in that temperature range.

A lot of plants went into winter stressed due to a dry fall, which likely made them less likely to be able to tolerate the sub-zero temperatures of January.

Throw in a much cooler-than-normal spring that has some plants taking longer to wake up this year and gardeners are just now starting to realize the extent of the damage.

It’s difficult to know why some hardy plants can survive weather like the last winter dished up and others can’t. In one garden, several large, established ‘Drops of Jupiter’ ornamental oregano (Origanum) plants succumbed, but three new Silver Scent sage (Saliva officinalis) plants just a few feet away are all fine despite being classified as less hardy than the oregano.

Many shrubs are even later than usual to emerge from their winter slumber. Summersweet (Clethra) seems particularly slow this year, and a large group of them in my garden seem to be leafing out on much different schedules. Some have pushed leaves on all branches but others are just starting to show signs of life. Like any nervous gardener, I have repeatedly checked to make sure the stems are still pliable and green when scratched, signs that there is still life.

Two weeks ago, I wrote off a collection of Fizzy Mizzy sweetspire (Itea) with crispy black stems and no signs of life and reluctantly ordered a different shrub as a replacement. It seems that few things will spur a lagging plant into action like buying its replacement, and sure enough, soon after the receipt was in hand, new growth started emerging from the base of the sweetspire.

Other late-to-emerge plants are likely to be even slower to show signs of life this year. In our area this includes plants such as butterfly bush (Buddleia) and hardy hibiscus, which even in good years sometimes doesn’t show up until late June.

It’s not just perennials and shrubs that had a rough winter. Wisconsin lawns took a hit as well, as evidenced by the prevalence of bare patches of lawn and reported record grass seed sales at local seed supply stores this spring. 

If you’re one of the many area gardeners finding more than a few bare spots in your garden this spring, you’re not alone. Consider it nature’s way of giving you permission to buy some new plants.