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dawiff

Favorite Salvias, Penstemons, Other Full Sun Perennials?

dawiff
11 years ago

Hello All, I took a break from winter sowing for a while, but I'm planning to be back at it this winter. I have a large (45 ft by 10 ft) full sun bed that I need to fill. I'm planning to put in lots of Echinaceas and Rubeckias, but I'm also wondering what salvias, penstemons and other full sun drought-tolerant perennials are your favorites, preferably ones that I can create big drifts with. What have you had good success with? And can you suggest some good sources for the seeds?

Thanks!

Comments (5)

  • silverkelt
    11 years ago

    Blanketflowers and Corepsis, both are great! I also do delphs, dianthus, helenium, agastashe .

    Swallowtail seeds is one of the best places for unique stuff.

    Ive purchased from ts seeds ,harris , dianes seeds, johhny select seeds, t & m seeds, pine tree seeds. There are many more some more expensive then others. Alot of people will swap out seeds as well and Ive gotten a # of things that way through the years. Ive kind of stopped doing that just becuase , mostly I have the same stuff now over the years, didnt get alot of responses last time around..

    Everything below was wintersown, none of these includes, the roses, daylily seedlings or other purchased plants (daffs, lilliums)

    Siberian Iris from wintersowing..

    {{gwi:427919}}

    veronica

    {{gwi:427920}}

    Mexican hats in from of Corepsis mayfield giant

    {{gwi:420889}}

    Double Gold Ruds..

    {{gwi:384060}}

    Cherry Brandy

    {{gwi:427921}}

    Columbines.

    {{gwi:427922}}

    Violas and pansies.. here they are short lived perenials, in fact I had a yellow come back in the same spot for like 6 years runnings..

    {{gwi:427923}}

    Golden Marguritte..

    {{gwi:427924}}

    Digitalis Candy Mountain (prety in bloom, terrible afterwards, it was ripped up and never will be back.. turned brown the moment flowers faded)

    {{gwi:398591}}

    Candy Lily

    {{gwi:427925}}

    Liatris..

    {{gwi:427926}}

    Siberian Blues Dianthus

    {{gwi:423322}}

    Blanketflowers

    {{gwi:353526}}

    Ill stop, the beauty of wintersowing is you can try hundreds of things.. these didnt even include the annuals. My garden ebbs and flows, things come and go. Sometimes old friends are lost, replaced and found again. Wintersowing really releases you from worrying about alot of things for companion plants.. Feel like a area needs something.. no problem, sow this year.. in 2 years it can be filled in in full for a few bucks.

    Silverkelt

  • TNflowerlover Zone 7a
    11 years ago

    Silver, those are some GORGEOUS flowers!!

  • littleonefb
    11 years ago

    Welcome back Dawiff. Sometimes we need a break but we always return "home" to WS, don't we.

    Not sure how well these will do in your zone, but these do wonderful in my full sun in the front yard. Full sun now that the huge oak tree got cut down a few years ago.

    Have seeds for most of these, if you want some just let me know

    Dianthus firewitch
    candly lily
    foxglove, mine have been perennial now for 9 years
    lupin, common blue/purple
    alyssum gold dust/gold queen. same thing and is stunning when it blooms
    cupids dart
    iris
    daylilies
    perennial phlox
    balloon plant
    clematis

    and in your zone, the following annuals in mine would be perennials for you

    malva zebrina
    balsam impatiens
    violas

    and hedges of rosemary would be stunning too.

    Fran

  • Renter
    11 years ago

    My favorite penstemon is a little bushy one with small blue flowers with some purple in it. It blooms all summer through fall. I cut it back when it gets bushy and has flowered and it reblooms. I think it is called Rocky Mountain or Colorado Penstemon.
    I bought seeds of columbine, lupine, hollyhock and a carnation from Swallowtail just a couple of weeks and really like their selections to choose from.
    The pictures posted above are beautiful.

  • loisthegardener_nc7b
    11 years ago

    My fav pentstemons are jinglebells and rondo. I might add penst smalli to the list when i see it bloom between some roses next year.

    My fav salvias are the greggiis and microfolia but most are not quite hardy in my area.

    My fav overall plant for dry sun is lavender.

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