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Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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Posted by
summerstar Z7VA (
My Page) on
Tue, Mar 30, 10 at 17:17
| I'd like to try Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine and pair it with one of the shorter non-flowering Stachys in a small area near our patio. I thought the grayish lambs ears might pair up nicely with the foliage of Loraine Sunshine.
How has Loraine Sunshine grown for you? And any suggestions for a good short, non-flowering Stachys? The bigger varieties tend to "flop" and reseed too much for the smaller bed I'm working with.
And, is the "Message" box that you type your question into on this forum become really small lately? Maybe it's my browser or something. It wasn't so small in the past. Any info on this? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| Loraine Sunshine is a spreading weed, seeds out everywhere, attracts aphids, gets powdery mildew, and in my opinion has been generally overrated for years. If it is a small area this isn't really suitable, though I do like it in the wildflower meadow type garden. I used to sell it, and still get a lot of requests for it, but the maintenance issues finally got to me so we discontinued this one. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| Ruh roh. I have seeds of this I was going to put out. I may rethink it. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| I have never had issues such as those stated above. Actually, I've had the opposite - a beautiful plant free of pests and disease and beloved by the bees and butterflies. It does reseed in my gardens, but not profusely. As a matter of fact, I wish it would reseed more. I have sown seeds from the original plants and the different seedlings have been quite the treasures. One has leaves with just the outer edge showing the white while others have varying degrees of variegation. |
Photo of LS in my gardens.
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RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| I've had the same experience as Tiffy, wish mine would reseed a bit more. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| It has been a total dud for me. Never had any vigor. I have moved it all over the place trying to find a spot it would thrive in, but no luck. In a full sun position the foliage would burn terribly. In part shade it would get a touch of mildew or lean. But I guess you will never know until you try it- seems some people have great luck with it. ;-) As an alternative, how about a variegated phlox? Quite a few kinds out there, 'Harlequin', 'Becky Towe', 'Nora Leigh, etc.
CMK |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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- Posted by kimcoco Zone 5, Wisconsin (My Page) on
Tue, Mar 30, 10 at 23:19
| It reseeds? Yeaayyy..^^clapping my hands^^. I love this plant, it's one of my favorites. Last year I had it in a place where it didn't get enough sun, but the year prior it was full sun and it was beautiful. I moved it back to full sun, but in any location I didn't have any problems described above. We have somewhat clayish soil. I'm pairing it with Artemisia Silver Mound this year, and a purple smokebush. I think the foliage is just beautiful. Nice pic, Tiffy. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| 'Loraine' doesn't do well in my climate and it tended to revert to all green foliage when I grew it. Probably a better bet in VA. Stachys lanata 'Silver Carpet' is a non-flowering form of Lamb's Ears that might work for your planting scheme. It's robust and easy to grow but like all Lamb's Ears it can suffer from mildew. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| My experience with it is similar to Tiffy's. Yes, it reseeds, but the little variegated seedlings are very easy to spot and remove. I find it to be very pretty and much more refined than my plain green heliopsis. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| Mine grows in a definite clump with minimal reseeding. Clay soil, somewhat dry. It does need extra water in very dry weather. That is the only negative thing I can say about this plant. It is quite popular with gardeners in my area. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| Mine tends to go green by late summer and I have yet to get varigated seedlings. I am quite fond of heliopsis but not this one. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| This is one of the best variegated plants ever. I love this plant. It never reseeds here. I have rooted cuttings of it before though. I think everybody should have at least one of these! |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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- Posted by kimcoco Zone 5, Wisconsin (My Page) on
Fri, Apr 2, 10 at 0:12
| I forgot to mention, I do get red spider mites on mine every year, I use horticultural oil. That's the only bad thing I can say. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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I love it. It keeps my garden bright most of the summer.
Jean |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| I have a few of these - love them. I have two seedlings that so far seem to come true from the parent. I have another large heliopsis variety in the same area with the loraine sunshine and there's been some cross polinating - haven't seen them flower yet (I assume they'll look the same but still....) but the leaves look almost like green and white tie-dye. I have no problem with these so far as I can tell |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| I think it's so very interesting how different people in different garden situtations (climate, zone, soil, water, humidity, degree of day/night temp fluctuations, pervasive insects, etc) can have such incredibly different experiences with the same plant. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| It does very well in my garden. Sometimes the seedlings lose a bit of their variegation but I just pull those ones out. I have it paired with monkshood in a partial shady bed and with blue delphiniums in a sunny bed...both do really well, although the shady one can get a bit floppy. This year, I put a tall metal trellis in front of it and it has been better. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| Ok, I now want this plant. I guess I am a collector at heart |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| That's a very pretty plant. Is it a reseeder? I grow 'Summer Sun' and that is a heavy reseeder. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| I've killed it twice, tried in 2 different spots. |
RE: Your experience with Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine
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| You can get a seed variety called 'Sunburst' that is similar. Here's a link. It would be cheaper since 100 seeds are cheaper than 1 plant. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Sunburst Seeds
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