Robert and Michael's GardenBlog - 2004 Edition, Fellsway East, West End of Malden, Massachusetts

The winter of 2003/2004 proved to be a hard one for our garden. Lack of snow cover and constant brutal cold and winds took their toll on lots of our plants. The lowest temperature was -10 below zero in mid January. A quick thaw, 4" of rain, and a refreeze on Apr. 06 taught us a valuable lesson and cost us our beautiful potted Japanese maple. The following plants did not make it:

March	03.02 Record High of 66 in Boston, 63 in Malden 03.16 Snow 03.23 Low of 15.6 degrees
April	04.19 High of 86 degrees - fried little dutch irises 04.23 Only 43 degrees with heavy rain Christmas cactus still blooming in dining room after 4 months
May	Bloom on Korean Spice Viburnum really great this year 05.05 low temp. of 36 degrees Several clematis had wilt Planted new everblooming blue hydrangea out front, let's see how it does next year Last week of month miserable, wet, much colder than normal, yuck!
June	Planted 2 new ninebark 'diablo' and have great hope for them next year. Clematis 'Huldine' thought to be dead, resurrects itself. Primula blooms again, what's up with that? 6.26 first harvest of beans for dinner, yummy next day have favas which were delish
July	New Sambucus gets some kind of wilt, but appears to have survived. Clematis 'Silver Moon' bloomed for 3 months Sunflower 'Moulin Rouge' was a great choice Only hit 90 degrees on July 30th
August	Heirloom tomatoes do not appear to be working in our garden, give up on them next year? New varieties of coleus are like bushes!! Must have more for next year in pots. 08.08 Rob saw his first hummingbird ever in our garden, but not again. 08.17 tomatoes are not ripening very well; 2nd half of month cooler than normal Best year for moonflowers
September	New chocolate eupatorium looks to be a winner. Hoping it will double in size next year. Sweet Autumn Clematis has it's best year ever. Dug up huge blue hosta and put 2 divisions into pots to overwinter. Move lilium 'Black Beauty' to back yard by bench Goatsbeard gets some kind of fungus and dies back Potted up 2 passionflowers, in hope of overwintering in the house; experiment successful? We'll see...
October	Dahlias are doing their thing. Have freshly cut flowers all month. Found daffodil borer in bulb, never knew about them, but it was in the bug book. Is this why we lost so many yellow daffodils? Decide not to replace any that we lost. Planted six Casablanca lilies to replace ones lost last winter. Rob must have these! Last 1/2 of month colder than normal Put new banana tree in basement to see if we can over-winter
November	Cannas still have 7 bloom stalks Cut last 9 dahlias No acorns on oak trees, very strange Record cold 11.10.2004 - 21.6 degrees 11.12 Woke up to 5-6"Snow! The most this early since 1976. Garden over...see you next year!