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| I could always just say “large scale” perennials, but I don’t think that would be as attention catching, LOL. ;-) What are some of your favorite super-sized perennials? Plants that have enough of a presence to even take the place of shrubs/trees as the “bones” of the garden in some situations. Bloomers that are great backdrop plants and make a big impact. My top pick would be Eupatorium (Eutrochium, or whatever we are calling Joe-Pye-Weed now, lol). I have a giant E. maculatum ‘Atropurpureum’ in the back and it adds such structure when grown up. Russian sage, though mine flops dreadfully because it isn’t in full sun, lol. Rudbeckia nitida ‘Herbstonne’, Chamerion angustifolium, Actaea, and my various tall Thalictrums add a nice tall vertical elements, though not quite as much massive structure as say the Joe-Pye. My 2nd year Laevisticum officinale should end up being pretty impact-ful too. The love of my plant life, Rheum palmatum var. tanguticum is a colossal sized fella. So what are your favorite titanic-esque plants? As always, pics very welcome ;-) |
Follow-Up Postings:
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Marie Britt Ligularia  Sum and Substance Hosta |
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Persicaria polymorpha is the most shrub-like perennial here. It does best in full sun  but also does surprisingly well in shade.  |
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| Rodgersia, Ostrich ferns, hibiscus moschetos |
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- Posted by Gyr_Falcon Sunset 23 USDA 9 (My Page) on Fri, May 17, 13 at 13:50
| Phormium (New Zealand Flax) Awesome, bold plants from 1' to giant. Billowing form or upright, and many colors available, too. Your eye will find these in the garden. |
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| Gyr, I forgot....For those of us in cold zones and cannot grow Phormium (New Zealand Flax). Yucca, especially Color Guard Yucca. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Fri, May 17, 13 at 14:21
| Lobelia tupa - a very bold statement and an absolute hummingbird magnet. |
Here is a link that might be useful: devil's tobacco - Lobelia tupa
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| I just love my Helianthus "Lemon Queen"... a great late summer/fall and tall perennial flower. |
This post was edited by rouge21 on Sat, May 18, 13 at 1:36
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| I love Helianthus 'Lemon Queen', Lespedeza, echinops, the newer hardy hibiscus cultivars, Crambe cordifolia (its smaller sibling Crambe maritima also has a more compact shrub like presence), Cephalaria gigantea, Silphium perfoliatum and good old Russian sage. Best part is, all of these flowers are great for pollinators. Oh, and I forgot that Yucca 'Color Guard' is a wonderful big-boned plant as well. My fall planted specimen survived our brutal winter beautifully with no protection. |
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- Posted by Bumblebeez z7b Seneca SC (My Page) on Fri, May 17, 13 at 17:55
| Definitely Baptista. After flowering, IT is a shrub and takes up a good 4' in diameter. |
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| Massively keen on apiaceae/umbellifers at the moment and especially excited by our native angelica sylvestris Ebony Superior - totes amazing! Also loving Baltic parsley, aka cenolophium denudata (and will inevitably allow a few of the parsnips, parsley and carrots in the veggie beds run to flower). Terribly common but absolutely essential - the graceful oat-grass - stipa gigantea - particularly when backlit by evening sun. I have always loved the malva family and a chance seed pick led me to althea cannabina - a vastly more interesting change from the ubiquitous verbena bonariensis, for those wanting a huge, but transparent perennial - ramps to 3m of airy flowers and insignificantly thin and ratty foliage. Both foxgloves and verbascum have always joined delphs for a June extravaganza of stately spikes....and add in the campanula lactiflora Pritchard's variety (starts a humble 2feet for the first year, doubling or even trebling in size over following years), for a full-on froth of traditional english garden style. The season is always ushered in with the glaucous and alien leaves of the seakale, crambe. Not the native maritima but C.cordifolia - a robust architectural beauty with panicles of sweetsmelling white flowers. There seems to be a theme developing here of tall, even enormous, but still daintily delicate plants.....so I will end with another 5foot tall, but o-so-delicate dierama pulcherrimum/aka Angel's Fishing Wands. I have the very dark Blackbird, and a lovely white, Guinevere....but have not been taken with the smaller, coral coloured d.igneum. I have always had a fondness for large perennials - despite having a minuscule garden, I have simply ignored the general rules of allotmenteering by growing flowers and roses (with a nod at edibles through fruit growing - the blossom, yah know!) |
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| The darmera peltata, various rodgersias, ligularia japonica and palmatiloba (the largest ligs in my garden) and skunk cabbage which is gorgeous now. |
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| "allotmenteering" - I learned a new word today, lol - a cool new word! :) Dee |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a N CT (My Page) on Fri, May 17, 13 at 20:20
| I'll add my voice and second the Baptisia australis/false indigo vote. Mine are amazing every year altho' I lost two over the winter (voles I think). They're gorgeous, require zero care or maintenance plus produce lots of generous seedpods. If I would add any more to the garden it would be several additional false indigo specimens. |
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| Persicaria 'Crimson Beauty', a spectacular plant in all seasons, but especially in bloom in the late summer/fall. |
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- Posted by christinmk z5b eastern WA (My Page) on Sat, May 18, 13 at 11:30
| -woodyoak and laceyvail, are those two species of Persicaria invasive? Both are such great looking plants. I feel I asked you both this question before, but of course I forgot, LOL. -isphan, glad you mentioned Crambe. A local public garden has C. cordifolia planted and it is THE BOMB! ;-D I've been debating whether or not I have room for one. Humm...I wonder if the neighbor would notice such a botanical monster suddenly planted in his yard??? Lol. PS to woodyoak.....you convinced me awhile back with your pics that I needed to try a large goat's beard. ;-) Brought one home from work and planted it in an out of the way spot until I can dig out the raspberry and Convallaria patch (GULP). That should be another nice large guy eventually. |
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| I am another Baptisia fan: australis, Purple Smoke, and some of the bigger yellows. Since all but my C. macropetalas pretty much die back to the ground, I consider my clematis to be perennials. The climbers add good height and often width as well. I have several non-climbers, the largest of which is Mrs. Robert Brydon, a huge mound of large toothed leaves and in August lots of tiny light lavender flowers. Tall Siberian Iris For those of you growing Helianthus Lemon Queen, do you get seedlings in a mulched bed? I am considering planting this one, but hesitate to plant something that will be a problem seeder since I am not good about deadheading. |
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| CMK - I don't know about the other persicaria but P. polymorpha is perfectly well behaved - I've never had a seedling (I do deadhead though because the faded flowers aren't attractive so that would help re no seedlings....) and it doesn't spread from the roots. It does form a pretty big clump eventually though so it needs space. It can be multiplied by division or by rooting cuttings taken from the ends of the stems before the stems get big and hollow. I hope you like your goatsbeard - remember to deadhead it if it's female.... I used to have a nice Crambe cordifolia but it seems to have petered out in the last couple of years after 10 years or so of good performance. It's not in an ideal location. This discussion is a good reminder that I should look for another one I think - it has such nice flowers, although the plant itself is rather coarse :-) So I need to think of another location to let it display its flowers and then recede into the background again. Old picture (2005) of my Crambe: |
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- Posted by vera_eastern_wa 5a-5b (My Page) on Sat, May 18, 13 at 14:19
| Great minds think alike.......I was going to say Joe Pye Weed too LOL! One of my faves..... I've since moved from Eastern WA to the mountains of Central Idaho and tried to get more started for this new garden, but musta just sowed a bunch of chaff! LOL But thanks to this thread, you've just reminded me to give it another go!!! Vera |
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| nhbabs wrote: For those of you growing Helianthus Lemon Queen, do you get seedlings in a mulched bed? I have two stands of LQ. Now both are in a very wild area of the 'garden' but I have yet to notice any other occurrences LQ beyond the two large clumps. My LQ rise to about 4.5 feet in height and about 2.5 feet across. If you have the space you will not be disappointed with the performance of this plant as a member of your late summer or fall garden. |
This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, May 19, 13 at 1:51
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| 'CMK' wrote: PS to woodyoak.....you convinced me awhile back with your pics that I needed to try a large goat's beard. Me too. I have a couple of Aruncus "Horatio" I bought a few weeks back that I must plant this weekend. If you were closer to my location 'CMK' I would give you one of them as I have no room for two! |
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| Hmmm, I realise that nearly all my choices were early season perennials, ignoring some of the rampageous ones which arise later in the year....so to counter that oversight - vernonia crinita (my susbstitute for Joe Pye Weed (I just don't like the muddiness of it) Macleaya cordifolia (Yeah, not a late bloomer, but it is resident in the late summer borders so...) Not a perennial but.......tithonia - i love the clear orange flowers. miscanthus - obvious, i know, but so lovely (especially varieties with deep copper flowers such as Juli) arundo donax (those gigantic cool green and white colours are a great backdrop to a group of taller heleniums in a froth of reds and orange. OK, a bulb but still.......lilium speciosum 'Uchida'. I have many lilies, including some enormous orienpets and trumpets.....but I have a stand of speciosum which return every August, with huge thick trunks, leaves immune to lily-beetle, which reach 3m and arch over the shrubby salvias, stately, reliable and massively exhilarating at that time in the summer when I am heartily fed up with yellows. And then there are the asters and aconitums for that essential hit of blue. |
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- Posted by christinmk z5b eastern WA (My Page) on Sun, May 19, 13 at 12:00
| -Vera, nice to see another EW resident here ;-) -Doug, too bad we didn't live closer. I have a feeling we would be doing a lot of over-the-fence plant swapping and enabling, LOL. ;-) -campanula, lol! Yellow is a bit iffy for me in general- it really has to be the right shade (dislike the golden tones in some of them). Know exactly what you mean by getting sick of that color in later summer. If I have to look at one more 'Goldstrum'....GAG. ;-D |
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