13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
That's encouraging! I find myself spending at least a few minutes every day trying to educate folks about Asclepias plants. "These aphids are ruining my butterfly garden." Then every package of stuff and home remedy for killing aphids gets listed, without stopping to realize that almost all of those things would harm the very butterfly (caterpillars) they're supposedly trying to attract. I haven't seen a monarch since I moved to AL in '07.
Very exciting, and I am jealous. I've only seen a couple of Monarchs in a nearby field where there is a lot of Asclepias syriaca growing, they were both males however. I have been meaning to get back and see if any females have arrived and started laying eggs.
I ran across this the other night. Its a good one for comparing color and size. I think its a gorgeous mass planting of various grasses.
To complicate matters in your decision making process, there is a variegated Moor Grass (Molina) that is quite small, has a white stripe on the leaves and very cold hardy. Has fantastic seed heads that would add interest.
I'm in love with Sesleria autumnalis. Its small, yellow green, tough and really brightens up a spot. The seed heads are downright cute. I'm ordering several more if SRG puts them on sale in late fall & I'm saving seed from the plants I have to sow. They have done beautifully and are 0 maintenance with no extra watering, sun or shade. There is a smaller one that is blue, its used in this planting below. Very well behaved with good color and habit.
Yep, it's fine. I'd like to leave them for the birds, but man do they look ugly! Somebody posted a photo of a bundling of cut coneflower heads a couple years ago (was it Echinaceamaniac?), s/he tied up the heads in a bundle and either hung them or propped them standing (can't remember which) for the birds. That is a good idea!
To prevent lots of volunteers in the spring I cut some blooms off and leave one or two on each plant for the birds. One year I cut them all off all the plants and stuck some in a large pot filled with dirt and put it in the garden for the birds which lasted through the winter resulting in only a few self sown plants in the spring.
rouge..thanks.. .. I love Pennisetum's although I know they're not that hardy in northern zones...
...fortunately my 'Monch' doesn't flop... but I think I'm right in saying that there are a number of clones doing the rounds that masquerade as 'Monch' that do flop.... so we never know which we've got until they grow...
laceyvail, I've never heard of 'Pardancanda', so I got to go look that up...
Here's a few that have really impressed me. Surprisingly, the majority are roses considering I'm not particularly a 'rose gardener.'
Verbena 'Homestead Purple' (planted 2014). Very reliable and very pretty.
Oh So Easy Paprika (Chewmaytime) shub rose (planted late spring 2015) - Grows just 1-2 feet tall and wide with perfectly unblemished tiny leaves and small single flowers that open spicy orange with a yellow center, fading to coral, then yellow before neatly dropping off if not deadheaded before then. Blooms are truly non-stop. All this despite our horribly wet spring and unsufferable hot summer. A perfect edging plant. I only purchased one plant to see how it did. Now I wish I would have planted more. I'm planning to get two more this fall.
Julia Child rose (planted late spring 2015) - I got 2 and they are too young to have reached their mature 3 ft height yet, but they have filled out consistently well and have been blooming like crazy ever since their first flush, even when temps have hovered around 100 degrees this week. The roses are a very pleasing yellow and very full. Very healthy foliage, too.
Easy Does It rose - (planted summer 2014). A floribunda with peachy-coral flowers. A real beauty at its first spring flush, and keeps blooming on and off til frost after that. No disease worries at all.
Aquilegia 'Irish Elegance' (planted spring of 2014) - gorgeous frilly white flowers. Elegant. Carefree.
Aquilegia Origami Blue and White. (Planted this spring). Got 2 of these on a whim locally. They claim they re-bloom throughout the summer but I was skeptical about that here, as hot as we get. I was surprised to find they actually did bloom again, and are still in bloom even now, and it's August 7 today and 102 degrees.
I would have expected to include euphorbia 'Bonfire' on my list because it has looked great since planting last year, but just a couple of weeks ago it started flopping out from the center and one of them is shriveling up and appears to be dying, although there's new buds growing at its base. I'm sick about this. Maybe too much rain?
I bought campanula Sarastro this year and have been very happy with this one. It bloomed non stop for most of the spring and summer. It's not blooming now, but I'm hoping to see another flush. Gaura Belleza, bought this spring. It's looked great all spri g and summer blooming almost continuously. I just hope it will overwinter for me.
Carnival Watermelon Heuchera, planted this last year and it has been growing well and the colors are lovely. Bought these for $4 at Walmart, what a great buy!Limelight and Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas. I planted both of these midsummer last year. Both are blooming well and are so easy care. I will be adding more paniculatas to my yard. They are such reliable bloomers compared to many other hydrangeas.
My last favorite is Royal Jubilee Rose. This was planted last year. It has really shaped up into a great shrub rose. Last year I wasn't too impressed but this year it has been performing well. Most of my other roses have blackspot and insect damage, this one has a little insect damage, but not much, and the blooms are gorgeous! It's starting it's second flush now.
Colocasia "Black Coral" looks very similar to C. "Diamond Head" - both with glossy near black foliage, more attractive to me than the dull-leafed "Black Magic". My favorite elephant ear in 2012 was "Coffee Cups", which is fun to watch during rain as the leaves fill up with water and then dip down to drain it out.
Best tropical accent for me was variegated tapioca (Manihot esculenta "Variegata") which after a couple of failed tries at keeping and propagating small plants over the winter, finally yielded success this time out as I grew several plants to nearly 6 feet (seen here backed by Canna "Australia"):
Musa basjoo benefited from a mild winter, growing to nearly 13 feet:
I just started a Youtube channel that will be dedicated to gardening! My first episode was on my Tropical Garden in Chicago! I would be absolutely honored if you all would check it out and like and subscribe! Enjoy!
Hmmm...
Bluestem grows everywhere at my house... Mulch or no mulch...
I'm sure it does but I like the way it looks best when its growing in very dry soil and I'm not planning to go run out and buy mulch to keep the ground moist around here. Most websites that sell it instruct not to mulch around the plants, I assumed it was to prevent rot at the base although I haven't had any problems except in the way they look growing too moist, it lodges when the soil is perpetually moist & I don't want to encourage that.
You have already bought them, right? What I tend to do is sit the pots out in the garden and move them around until I like the way everything looks, keeping in mind mature sizes. As far as your colors, it sounds like they will all look quite lovely together! Be sure to mix up leaf sizes, shapes, textures since you don't want all the same stuff in the same area as it gets to look boring. More interesting to vary all that. I have ended up needing to move some things that ended up too tall in front or just not playing well with the group. :-)
Aaaannd you could always put the pots out and take a picture for us to critique! ha. We do love pictures.
As bad as yalls problem sounds... I've been following a thread on another forum... Where the OP has been watering 3-4 times a day! He's complaining bout the well goin dry...
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=402088
The reasons given for avoiding all that watering are good, but the alternatives kinda lead to other problems.
I tell everyone that any plant they can not name... Is NOT a weed, but it doesn't help... They get in the zone... Pull out rare plants I brought them...
Deadheading should be avoided by bird lovers, and anyone that wants to share plants... It's simply a bad idea.
You have me curious, what rare plants are they ripping out? I'll have to check that thread out.
I don't do much deadheading myself, just a bit of neatening up or thinning when necessary to keep it attractive. We don't get much snow here so I've got a 4 seasons of interest garden and I want the texture of the seed pods in winter contrasting with the dried grasses and they attract winter birds. Its gotten to the point that I find myself thinking more of winter interest than spring flowers when it comes to plant choices & look forward to fall as my favorite garden season. It would be an understatement to say I've become a bit obsessive with native grasses these days, We are coming into the best time of year for them and I find myself continually looking out the window to admire them or just walking about especially when the wind is blowing. A positive result -- watering is just about down to zip & that is a big relief because its such a loosing battle down here this time of year when it gets so hot and dry for so long. Its good for the grasses, they flop if its too wet or cool. Maybe that's because it was supposed to be prairie all along?
I hadn't noticed how old the thread is either, I was too busy getting blinded by the caustic remark. No wonder the OP is MIA. Still its an interesting subject about pollinators. Many people want to attract them & considering the ecological benefits and loss of native habitat any efforts in this direction is a small way of creating island habitat area to help preserve native plant species and beneficial insects.
The city where I live is depressingly full of dead zones. Deserts of bermuda or fescue lawns, ground cover plants, non flowering clipped hedges and shrubs, hybrid plants and too many trees creating too much shade where nothing much grows underneath. Once upon a time it was vast prairie teaming with wildlife and hardly a tree in sight.
If you want to start a new bed with plants, use the plants that you thin in late winter/early spring, not the ones you take out for rejuvenation. For one thing, it's really too late in the season for those plants to establish well. And when you rejuvenate, you take out everything in that year's rotation. New runners will fill up the empty areas, and the whole bed will then be thinned the following late winter/early spring.
Well, it doesn't really make sense for the mites to cause the problem, but it was just interesting that a photo on the first site when I googled came up had the black edges. It has been rainy in many places this year, and so a lot of plants are struggling. Struggling plants get more pests and diseases, that's the way it works, so maybe it would be good to look at other factors and try to get those under control, to move on towards eventually getting the mites under control. It all goes together. Kind of hard to manipulate the rain, though. At least it's dried up here. I agree a whole plant shot would be good to see, if OP is still around.
Aster yellows. There is no cure. Best to remove the infected plants. This virus, transmitted by leafhoppers and mites, can spread to many of your plants, including some vegetables. Excellent, very thorough, piece by Missouri Botanical Garden at:
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/viruses/aster-yellows.aspx