My new side bed

And now I have just finished putting 6 bags of mulch on the new side bed.  

Due to the unusually cold winter, I have unfortunately lost some of my new bushes... but some unexpected fighters have survived!

It's dead, Jim!

My bottlebrush is probably dead.  The optimist in me has not given up yet, but I see absolutely no sign of life.  After the first 27 degree low, this plant was looking only half alive. I kept covering it up, but even the last bits of life were lost mid-winter.  I really did love this plant and looking around the neighborhood, I see a bunch of other bottlebrushes that took a heavy hit, but are still alive.  So, I'll see if maybe I can get another one established, and making take a little more care with it on really cold days.

Another one bites the dust
Another plumbago has bit the dust.  No big surprise here, though this guy did hang on for two years and a transplant.  I have killed more of these plants than I care to remember.  At least two maybe three in the porch bed, and this is at least my second in this bed.  But I just love this guy, so I'm going to try again.  This time, I am going to purchase the biggest plumbago I can find, and see if I can't get him established.   But I promise myself, if I kill this one, it will be my last!

And my duranta in the porch planter has died.  I really love this plant, but keeping it is a planted may not be the best plan.  I think I am going to purchase another one and put it somewhere along my side bed.

I will survive!!

On the bright side, my dwarf pomegranate shows signs of life.  This year, instead of cutting it back to three inches as recommended in one of my books, I decided to leave it intact.  He looked kind of messy during the winter, but just this week, I have seen branches that looked incredibly dead spring to life.  I'll keep my eye on it to see how much it recovers!  But I'm thrilled that it shows some life!  That has got to be better than recovering from 3 inch stalks, right?

And I have been looking and looking for signs of life in my American Beautyberry. And just today, when I was mulching, I found this itty bitty sprig of green attached to the base of the plant!  It's alive!!!

And then, while mulching, I had two total surprises.  

Last year, mom and I planted two white phloxes by the bird bath.  They didn't make it through the hot summer, which wasn't all that surprising.  What was surprising was when they both came up this spring?!?  Looking better than ever! Yay!!

And my two to three year old tropicanna, that I replanted last spring is also showing signs of life.  Truth is, it also died during the heat and drought, and I had completely forgotten it, until I was laying down the mulch, and found its pretty little red head sticking up!  Yay again!!!