Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
catskillsgardener

Survival of the Fittest

I love gardening and have a long border on a hillside, about 12 feet wide. Originally, I took Christopher Lloyd or Tom Stuart Smith as models, artful (repeated) variety, interesting plants, careful color scheme.

But then, surprise, some plants did MUCH better than others. Geums bought at great expense sulked and disappeared. Dark red alceas rusted or were consumed by Japanese beetles. I never liked hybridized hemerocallis and yet, when I put in some clumps, the were indestructible and bloomed seemingly forever.

Now I have a garden of tough, often "given" plants -- because those were the ones that survived and needed to be divided. Color has more or less been thrown out the window. My tapestry has been whittled down to hemerocallis, digitalis, geranium, peonies, hydrangias... all plants you'd need chemicals to kill. And I think I'm fine with that. Is this reality or am I just lazy?

Comments (42)

  • moistbutwelldrained
    9 years ago

    Well said wantonamara. Your garden is that little piece of the world that you control. Well, ok not control but negotiate with nature over. So whatever agreement you can reach with nature is fine. You can grow the plants that work or you can grow the plants that don't and just keep trying. There is no judge looking down on the garden to say yes or no.

    Personally, I just keep exploring, with different forms and colors and combinations. I hope I never run out of crazy ideas to try.
    MBWD

  • linaria_gw
    9 years ago

    I also go for tough plants but still try to find nice neigbouring combinations.
    And try to apply some simple design rules like repetion, contrast and variation.
    After 4 years I keep editing my narrow border but the swaps and editions are less every year. And also love to test new ( non foufou) plants

    I read a nice definition of " an ideal or perfect garden" somewhere : a garden where you find delight or enjoyment

    So mine is perfect already...

    Bye, Lin

  • gardenweed_z6a
    9 years ago

    I designed my garden beds on paper, then dug and planted them. After just a couple of years, I learned (the hard, costly way) what did well and what didn't thrive or survive. My beds have now been established and stable for quite a few years altho' I'd never admit there's room for improvement.

    My #1 intent was (and is) to sustain pollinators: bees, butterflies and birds. #2 purpose was minimal maintenance. As long as my beds continue to fulfill my purposes for them, I'm content. That they also please my eyes each growing season is merely a side benefit.

    In the course of reaching this point, I found which perennials work, long-term, and which don't. Those which don't are gone; I don't miss them but do regret one or two.

    Some of my beds are curved, some straight, some are island beds, some foundation beds. All were designed to enhance 'curb appeal' but looks/appearance were secondary to sustaining critters.

    I shopped online ever-so-carefully for mail-order nurseries offering Hemerocallis/daylily varieties that had long blooming seasons, produced brightly-colored blooms and also were highly-rated by customers. I regret not a single purchase or planting.

    I wouldn't say you're crazy--simply realistic about what you appreciate in your garden.

  • Marlorena
    9 years ago

    ..what lovely posts here, I have so enjoyed reading each one and it has enhanced my day very much...
    ...I have become convinced that friends, neighbours..relatives, think I'm absolutely mad... I mean, you're not supposed to like gardening...this much..?.... at this time of year too..?

    ..I have a question regarding Hemerocallis... what do you consider to be a long flowering season...? I have one that flowers here for 7 weeks total...start to finish... is that good?
    I feel as though I should be pleased with that...

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    A 12 ft wide border on the side of a hill sounds like a huge stroke of luck to me, I'm thinking drainage for those tough plants that like lean and mean, which are coincidentally the plants I tend to like back.

    As far as planning goes, I don't except for the paths. I like things a bit wild and natural closer to what you would see from the car window while driving down a road rather than beds of plants meticulously arranged in a planned garden. This solves the 'will it survive' problem while satisfying my preference for what could be called an un-garden 'garden'. This results in very few plants that would cause envy or probably even interest to most people but surprisingly, I later discovered in Google-land there is an environmentally motivated trend toward this sort of thing.

    As for curb appeal, I pretend the street isn't really down there & neither is the city for that matter. I can almost manage this in my little pocket prairie which I lovingly think of as my escape. I find it a fun relaxed natural 'happenin' place to be in with a lot of prairie grasses, flying visitors & interesting wild plants not typically used as garden plants. I can walk about and see what new surprises are in store from all those wild seeds I collected, sowed and then forgot all about. My biggest enjoyment comes from what you could call editing by trial and error which is the fun.

  • ninamarie
    9 years ago

    Why fight nature? Grow that which is easy and that which is beautiful. Just because a plant is difficult to grow, or rare, does not make it perform well. And even worse, plants that are very difficult for you to grow can be easy in others' gardens.
    As far as colour arrangements go, I steal my best ideas from what I see in wild gardens. There, nature mixes colours willy nilly and they never seem to clash. And you can over garden so that the bewitching "accidents" of colour and texture are weeded out because the surprise did not fit into your plan. One year, because I could not weed the gardens as intensely as I had hoped, a columbine seeded itself beside an early thalictrum. I still remember the delightful pairing of foliage and colour. In fact, I liked the pairing so much that I have used them in many another garden to never have those two plants bloom again at the same time.
    The one thing I do plan for are the seasons so that I have continuing colour from snow melt to snow fall.

  • mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
    9 years ago

    The only problem I have is that you are missing some very good, very easy plants. Catmints, ornamental grasses, and baptisias are some of the things that aren't usually divided and shared.

  • Catskillsgardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Dear Marolena,
    I would say that 7 weeks is an excellent flower time for the hemerocallis.

    And Gallica, amazingly much of my nepeta was overwhelmed by other plants in the Darwinian struggle of my long border. And I have never liked grasses in my borders, despite the fact that they are easy and popular.

    I should have added that I am away for long periods, unfortunately, and so my border has had to work itself on its own. I don't think I spend more than 20 hours a year on this long border (to keep down weeds, I use cardboard covered in county woodchips (dropped off free by the road crew) in the front, and black plastic covered in the same on the back row with the shrubs. That is perhaps why tuberous and rhizomatic flowers work so well.

    Despite the mulch, I find digitalis invaluable for its aggressive self-seeding as well as the tight crowns it makes. I also encourage verbena and that works well for me too.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    We're getting about seven weeks of bloom from about a dozen different daylily cultivars combined in our own garden.

    This year we still had a little bloom on the rebloomer 'Fragrant Treasure' in early October, though the very large bulk of daylily bloom was from earlier July to the end of August.

    I recognize "four years" mentioned by Lin.
    For me (with routine maintenance) a mixed perennial bed goes through an approximately five year cycle, from planting to the need for replanting. It's at it's best in the third or fourth year. I approach this by renovating different sections of mixed perennial beds each year.

    If it wasn't for gardeners, the fittest to survive would be the weeds. Nevertheless, with my gardening attention, the extent of perennial plant mortality never fails to amaze me. Some perennials (species/cultivars) are far longer lived than others in my experience. David Tomlinson, who emphasizes perennial plant diversity to a much greater extent than I could, says the same for his 3/4 acre Merlin's Hollow.

    'Forty Second Street' (below July 19) gave about five weeks of bloom this year:

  • rusty_blackhaw
    9 years ago

    I'm all for tough, undemanding perennials.

    What's especially fun are the ones that aren't supposed to thrive or even survive here, but reliably come back year after year - like Salvia guaranitica, Mirabilis longiflora (a perennial four o'clock with flowers having weirdly elongated white tubes), Amorphophallus konjac and even the Nandina that brightened a front border for a number of years before finally succumbing to an unusually cold winter.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    9 years ago

    What's especially fun are the ones that aren't supposed to thrive or even survive here, but reliably come back year after year

    I agree. This is part of the variety that is the spice of gardening.

    My weak point is that for too long I have been a plant collector...enticed by the newest and less common...often at the expense of garden design. But that may be the subject of another thread.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Some pretty informative posts:

    Longest Blooming Daylilies - Daylily Forum - GardenWeb
    forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/daylily/msg111542006060.html?23
    Nov 6, 2010 - 24 posts - âÂÂ14 authors

  • Marlorena
    9 years ago

    thanks for that link...I'm checking some of those out... see if a couple are available over here....
    ..73 days ! my goodness.... there are some really nice ones too...

    edit:
    ..marvellous...I can get 'Radiation Biohazard'... I like that one very much...

    This post was edited by Marlorena on Sun, Dec 28, 14 at 16:10

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Perhaps that one has an odd cultivar name, Marlorena.

    Suppose it could be worse, than maybe say: Hemerocallis 'Kiss of Death'.

  • Marlorena
    9 years ago

    lol....yes very odd, but I like these quirky names.... it better be worth it, it costs the equivalent I suppose of about 25 dollars a plant...! for that price I expect an explosion of colour...

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    9 years ago

    Yes SunnyBorders thanks for the link.
    I like 'Radiation Biohazard' also Marlorena and that the poster for that one was in my zone. You could probably do well with any of them.
    I must say 'Moonlit Masquerade' has always had a very short bloom period for me.
    We had quite a cool summer this year and 'Final Touch' a beautiful pink did very well but, perhaps 3 weeks.
    The only one that performs all season-and every year is the adorable mini 'Penny's Worth'. It blooms its little heart out. It will take breaks for a few days and re-bloom all season, even after we have had snow.
    Most daylily collectors will not show this cutie any love because it is not flamboyant.
    LOL! Someone else must grow and love this one.

  • rusty_blackhaw
    9 years ago

    One nuclear option would be to grow Hemerocallis "Radiation Biohazard" along with Lantana "Radiation" and the Veronica "Bomb Series" (which supersedes the "Atomic Ray" mix).

    I've heard glowing reports.

  • Marlorena
    9 years ago

    LOL !.... that's great Eric... I reckon I could be set alight with that...

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Cute, Eric!

    Of course, nuclear physics aside and on a more personal level, there's always Lobelia siphilitica.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    9 years ago

    The only one that performs all season-and every year is the adorable mini 'Penny's Worth'. It blooms its little heart out.

    Thanks for this review. "PW" is now on my to get list for 2015. (Although I did a bit of a google search and it doesn't seem to be readily available).

  • mnwsgal
    9 years ago

    Over the years I have added daylilies to my garden through plant swaps. Penny Worth was one of the first and a reliable rebloomer at front of the border.

    Like others have said, your garden is yours to delight in. I make choices that mostly work in my environment and give me satisfaction and joy. Some of my plants give me joy with the ease of growing and lovely bloom/foliage. Others give me satisfaction when finally they survive and are robust. And there is also the satisfaction of giving pleasure to others who enjoy my garden as they walk by or as they walk through the garden with me.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Longest Blooming Daylilies

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Re daylilies in perennial gardening.

    I tend to garden in light, for colour, and tend to see perennial gardening as painting with flowers. For me, the attraction of perennials, rather than annuals, is changing colours throughout the season. The latter requires using as large a variety of different perennials and cultivars as possible.

    Consequently, it's much easier to work with team players in the perennial beds. For instance, from personal experience, I recognize one reason why it was once common to banish tall bearded irises, in large gardens, to their own flower beds.

    I only really started using daylilies about ten years ago, when lily beetles made it impractical to rely on true lilies here.

    I'd certainly agree that daylilies themselves are easy perennials to maintain over extended periods of time. On the other hand, their overall shape presents some difficulties for my mixed perennial gardening.

    They tend to be wide for their height at a time in the growing season when a mixed perennial garden here is flowering, overall, at a height of three or four foot. True their flowers do rise above their leaves, but their foliage takes up space and can tend to get shaded out.

    'South Seas' and friends (August 2, 2013)

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    With such an array of perennial plants to choose from there are countless ways a person can go. If you want a flower garden thats one thing but it often leaves a person with what I think of as a blank slate in winter. The downside is many of these plants are uninteresting when not in bloom and that puts some people off no matter how pretty others find the flowers.

    People who want 12 months of substance, form and interesting textures choose plants that offer that and flowers become a matter of secondary importance, a sort of added extra rather than the reason for choosing particular plants. Its a matter of priority.

    Survival of the fittest usually brings up the subject of native plants. Plants native to a person's region are adapted to survive the conditions in that region and do not need the kind of worry, extra care, $$, soil amendments, regular upkeep, dividing, constant replacement and coddling some gardeners simply don't have the time, resources or inclination for. This seems to describe the OP who is away from home a lot. Some people actually prefer the more subtle effect over flashier hybrids and imported plants.

    eric, Mirabilis longiflora is an interesting native that I have been considering on and off for a couple years now. You bringing that up made me add it to my next seed order from Plants of the SW.

    eric--I'm editing to ask a question. I have a wild low growing small purple blooming Mirabilis I found growing along a Kansas roadside, a real cutie. It blooms its little head off every day from early summer until late fall. Does the M. longiflora have a bloom time like that?

    This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, Dec 30, 14 at 13:30

  • Marlorena
    9 years ago

    Just an update on my Daylillies I was referring to earlier...
    I have ordered 'Radiation Biohazard'....'Saratoga Pinwheel' and 'Spindazzle'... I should receive these in March... so I'm looking forward to seeing how these grow here... I like most the 'spider' type...

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    9 years ago

    Catskillsgardener - I have had plants fail that should not have in theory. We all find our comfort level in one way or another. You will certainly find other plants that work for you.
    I agree with mad_gallica that Baptisia is a must have.(if you like it) It really takes care of itself.
    Rouge it will be worth the effort to track PW down! and happy to get a nod on it from mnwsgal. I think it could fit the bill for you too SunnyBorders because D. 'Penny's Worth' is so compact.
    LOL Tex - Certainly for some of us we do not need to worry about our gardens being a blank slate in winter. Snow takes care of that for approx. 5 months of the year.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    peren.all, I get the idea but down here we don't get all that lovely snow which leaves our gardens nakedly exposed about 98.9% of the time during the otherwise drab and dreary winter. Many of us do think about plants with winter interest. Lots of people plant bright blooming pansy's, ornamental kale and o. cabbage as winter annuals for color and there's all sorts of perennial plants that turn purple or have nice winter foliage color and form and even a few plants that bloom during winter. Half the country is south of the Mason Dixon line so I hope I'm not alone about this on the forum. Some people grow cool season crops this time of year.

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    9 years ago

    Absolutely Tex- You are among the lucky half of the folks here on GW, and you know that I am a huge fan of your gardens.
    The unlucky half that are buried under snow still do garden with winter in mind just in a different way.
    I have an arbour with large vines that while void of foliage are still interesting for the colour and silhouette of the bare stems.
    I grow large Miscanthus that remain interesting through winter, although I sometimes go out and bounce the snow off so they are not flattened after a snow storm.
    Many people leave seed heads for interest and wildlife.
    I find the diversity of experiences to be one of the most fascinating aspects of GW.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Things here are cold and frozen, even if they're not currently snow covered.

    Personally I'm quite happy to rest up, physically at least, and look forward to the spring-summer-fall garden interest of next year. For us, there's at least something going on with garden perennials from later March to earlier November.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    9 years ago

    For us, there's at least something going on with garden perennials from later March to earlier November.

    During the depths of winter I sometimes catch myself counting the legit gardening months on my fingers. I figure it is April 1 to Nov 1...so 7 months.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Fingers, Rouge?
    In light of the computational nature of your professional specialty, I'm quite surprised!

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago

    Christmas means lots of roses here.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    I think its nicer looking out at dried grasses, woody perennials and/or evergreen perennials that offer foliage color and texture interest in winter rather than a bed full of stalks died down to the ground from a summer flower garden filled with herbaceous perennials that don't offer anything in winter. Personally, I couldn't stand that and would find it utterly depressing. I can live without the blooms in winter but not with that kind of forlorn dead space. If you don't have snow cover, why not have some interest 12 months out of the year instead of just patiently waiting for spring?

    The only thing blooming here is Gregg dalea and Rosemary but then this ain't Austin wantanamara and the only thing our roses have is leaves and hips. Not too flashy but you take what you can get. There's even a few bees but this week is cold to the bone.

  • moistbutwelldrained
    9 years ago

    Of course, there's no law that says you can only have one garden at a time. Maybe you have a winter garden as described by TexasRanger that you can see from indoors. And also a separate summer garden full of flowers that you see from a different indoor location or just from outside. My long range plan is to have several gardens tuned to different seasons and/or plant types.

    This spring I will start on my tropical garden with cannas, banana, and elephant ear. But I will add some grasses in the front that will look good when the tropicals have died back. Of course, it all depends on how much space and gardening energy you have. :)
    MBWD

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    8 years ago

    Rouge it will be worth the effort to track PW down! and happy to get a nod on it from mnwsgal. I think it could fit the bill for you too SunnyBorders because D. 'Penny's Worth' is so compact.

    UPDATE:

    I came across PW daylily this past weekend. I picked up 2 of them and will find some place for them sometime this week.

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    8 years ago

    rouge - So happy you were able to locate this little gem. I am such a plant nerd that I am excited to have others grow it and consequently enjoy it as much as I do!

    I look forward to pics of it in your garden.

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    8 years ago

    I am excited to have others grow it and consequently enjoy it as much as I do!

    I know exactly the feeling. Thanks for your recommendations 'peren'.

  • Campanula UK Z8
    8 years ago

    I am caught between 2 gardening paradigms, doing neither particularly well. I do design and build for customers, but for my personal pleasure, this represents the purest tedium. The idea of selecting plants which look well together and completes an image is deeply satisfying for that growing season and then, having done that, seen this, grown such and such, I am bored. Too many plants, too little time. From one year to the next, the greenhouse, the flagstones, the coping, the chairs and tables are filled with pots and trays of more new seedlings. From a distance, it looks lush and colourful, but obviously, without a shred of artful placing because at heart, I am primarily a grower of plants, but along with the inevitable lack of space, it also means that I rarely get to post photos of my gardens since there are always stray pots, tools, hoses and other detritus littering the place...and this also extends to the allotment. A plant barely reaches maturity before it is removed because there are other interesting plants which need the space...so not a garden but a collection of plants, often wildly assorted, unrelated and inappropriate.Obviously, I cannot change every part every year (although I try) so there are some which escape the cull - some of which are very long lived indeed, but I have come to terms with never having a beautiful, harmonious and aesthetically pleasing garden, but I do get to see, feel, touch, sniff and even eat, a considerable number of fascinating plants...and as an aside, I also get to schmooze with many other gardeners, nursery owners and plants people because we are all at it - swapping, scrounging, passing round. I have already got some trades lined up for the aristolochia fimbriata sent to me by Mara. A result of lack of space has encouraged me to throw spare seeds around the 'hood, even sneakily planting extras in municipal beds - I am getting massive amusement from seeing my neighboourhood populated by althea cannabina - a romping giant of a plant which seeds in cracks and gaps, the little mexican daisy (everywhere), welsh poppies and a rather astonishing blue iochroma (which looks exotic and tropicalesque but is a tough and vigorous survivor (and another sidewalk and crevice inhabitant).

  • docmom_gw
    8 years ago

    Thank you, all, for sharing your thoughts and opinions on how and why you garden. It is so fun for me to join in and continue to appreciate the huge diversity of plants, gardens, and even gardeners. Our world is busy and crowded, like some of our gardens, but there is room for everyone. Without the wonderful diversity of people, our world and discussions would be boring. We all need to keep practicing inclusion and acceptance of everyone's chosen lifestyle, and realize that we all benefit from one another. We need to encourage people with less common outlooks to speak up about how and why they live and think the way they do. Try not to judge, ever, but certainly not until you get a chance to understand why.

    Martha

  • rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
    8 years ago

    Campanula, I had to read your post multiple times. So many of your statements ring so true for myself (and I bet for others in this forum):

    Just a few that especially hit home:

    - From a distance, it looks lush and colourful, but obviously, without a shred of artful placing because at heart, I am primarily a grower of plants,

    - A plant barely reaches maturity before it is removed because there are other interesting plants which need the space...so not a garden but a collection of plants, often wildly assorted, unrelated and inappropriate

    - even sneakily planting extras in municipal beds

    I think I know why my gardens aren't nearly as good as they could be. I am just no good at "hardscapes". That is creating different levels, putting in larger stones, creating even small retaining walls etc.

    But digging up lawn to enlarge or create a new perennial garden, I am tops ;).

    I love what I do around the outside of our home and there are times that I think I do get some plant combinations just right. There is so much I like about perennial gardening that I try to ignore my shortcomings.

    Thanks again for the post Campanula.


  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    8 years ago

    Camp, it is called WORK IN PROGRESS. Not even a A "work in progress" but WORK in progress. The "A" would connote that i possibly have a plan with an ultimate goal and maybe even a vague schedule with a completion date. HA!. I have black pots strewn around from incremental building up of beds on a rocky hill side, Rocks strewn around waiting for more rocks to magically appear. Raccoon traps . seeding and cutting trays. My signs of hope for the future. Mean while the work that is in progress is happening in my studio and helping with the clean up on the Blanco river. God that is a mess of 500 year old bald cypresses thrown like pick up sticks. So sad.

  • Campanula UK Z8
    8 years ago

    Ho, Mara. For UK tree lovers (which is pretty much the entire population), 15th October, 1987 was the night of our horrendous and legendary hurricane -115mph winds which tipped over 15 million trees - massive oaks and gigantic beeches, gone like kindling...but what an opportunity too. Replanting, clearing, regeneration - it was phenomenol...and 25 years on, the landscape was restored to greater health, diversity and utility. It was hard to feel hopeful at the time, but life will always persist and endure.


Sponsored
ANF Kitchen & Bath
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars8 Reviews
Innovative & Creative Kitchen & Bath Designers Servicing VA