My pampus grass is all brown and looks dead from last winter's unusual blast of cold. Should I take it out or see if it comes back? There are no signs of life. Also, three of my hardy palms look dead. Anyone out there from lower mainland and fraser valley have any thoughts?
The Pampas Grass will recover, put out new leaves as spring progresses. Might be a good idea to cut it back (or if you can do so safely, burn off the dead leaves on top - it is adapted to fires). The palms, wait and see.
Winter damage is frequent in this region. Seems likely results are liable to vary markedly with site conditions and particularly form being grown. For example, after thriving for some years 'Pumila' froze and died completely here on Camano Island during a recent winter. Presumably spontaneous seedlings were not being seen until recent years due to winters usually being too cold in the past. Perhaps this last winter has removed these but otherwise enough of them had been appearing along highways and in creeks in the Seattle area to form a basis for concern about weediness.
