13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

Bobbie, love the combinations in your beds and look at those tomatoes, looks like you had a good year. We had tomatoes and cucs coming out our ears this year, considering the year we've had weatherwise, leaves me scratching my head on how come they did so well when other things didn't LOL.

tak2w, great pics, looks like you have quite a few beauties in your garden.

Annette

Thanks, Annette. We also have had a great year for tomatoes and cucumbers and beans. Too many at this point!

Thanks, tak2w, looked up the Chaste Tree. Very pretty tree but not hardy here. Probably a red luna hibisicus as they are very commonly sold.

Around here it's known as perennial dahlia. I hack out at least half every year, and always have twice as much as I want. Been blooming for at least a month and still going strong.

ladygladys until about mid July of this year it had not been readily available but now I see it for sale all over.

Any chance you could post a picture of yours thyme2dig?

Here are some of the "flowers" showing on mine right now.

well rouge, it looks like my style of planting is what you might want for your aralia to stay small, because mine has survived but def NOT become big. I have it in open shade (no direct sun) and growing up through a ground cover of yellow and green euonymus. yours is robust for sure. i alrdy grow quite a few yellow leaved woodies, but we will be picking up many more this month from Broken Arrow. The aralia sun king reminds me a little of the yellow leaved philadelphus, though the mock orange has smaller leaves.

Great picture 'ech'!

I had been meaning to put in a couple of "Little Henrys" as senior takes up so much room.

Might you post a photo showing a complete "Little Henry" in full bloom?

UPDATE:

This is the same plant from last year. It has splayed out completely from the center with almost all stems horizontal. I was thinking of replacing it with something more upright like "Ashai" Sunflower but with such unique blooms and the plant in a very wild area of the garden, we have decided to let things lie ;).

I've had some damage to my Solomon Seal that looks similar that was caused by the Lily beetle. Another pest to consider.

I have it too, but not throughout the entire plant. I would say the bottom 1/3 of the plants are most affected. It's been wet here this year, so I vote slug damage.

Kevin

ryse, this is a perfect example of how helpful it would be to include your general or specific location- in your moniker. Z.5 can vary greatly depending where it is. just a suggestion. Neat plant!

Northwest IL --- 30 miles east of the Mississippi.

eupatorium is one of my fav plants. love the dusty mauve color that goes so well to balance all our boldly colored yellow, and blue, conifers and woodies. i even grow Little Jo at the front edge of one mixed border- just for some height variety, next to a red dissected J maple and a daphne carol mackie. Only 2 beds where i have it- have moist soil. Maybe that's why ours do NOT seed around (boy i wish they would.) I have a pretty white and green variegated eupatorium but it hasn't flowered yet, and it is only 2.5'H.

I will never forget seeing Gateway in a PNW garden where it was 10-12'H!! I had to ask 'what's that?'; it so fooled me!!
(That's often the case w/ plants in the PNW.It's all due to their secret laboratories where they breed their plants with Wilt Chamberlain DNA.)

Mnwsgal, be sure you eat your Wheaties and do a bit of pumping iron before taking on that clump reduction project. Mine was hard work!

The original poster's sundrops look like Oenothera fruticosa. I have a couple patches of it which I transplanted from my father's garden years ago, so it has sentimental value for me too.

I generally cut it back after flowering. The new basal foliage rosettes are not unattractive.

If you're looking for ugly - there's an Oenothera I grow that towers to nearly 5 feet in height, decorative during its long blooming season (the flowers open in time-lapse fashion in the evening, which is fun to watch), but an eyesore while the seed is ripening. I like to have some resow, so I put up with the derelict appearance until the seeds are ripe.

Thanks so much everyone! It sounds like the mistake I'm making is not cutting them back.

I've decided to hang on to them for another season or two and see what happens. I'll move them back to the sunny side of the garden soon.

So, Cathy, has it bloomed yet?

Any updates??
CMK

Daisy- beautiful butterfly pictures!
If I don't put down mulch I have a sea of verbena coming up, but most perennials will outcompete them so they're not a problem for me. They only seem to do well in disturbed soils (but we do have fairly cold winters here)
I have them as fillers wherever there's still a bare spot.

Mine reseeded with a vengence this year. One bed is a complete mess with it, and powdery mildew, but the bees and butterflies love it. One year I had hardly a reseed and it was a major bummer, so I will NEVER complain about it's rampant reseeding again. It's easy enough to rip out any unwanteds anyway ;)

At least in Arkansas/Oklahoma, I've never noticed this being invasive.

I've never noticed it seed, and it slowly bulks.

Thanks very much, yes looks like crassipes 'rosea'.

This one can be split but definitely doesn't spread like a few of them do. Sounds like this cultivar doesn't even set seed.

Absolutely loved my caryopteris. Unfortunately I lost my last 2 this past winter. One of them had been in my garden for about 8 years. I had standing water for the first time where it was planted. Stupid freeze thaw got it alonf with the water. Still thinking about getting one in a different spot. Mine WERE spectacular.

Sherry

i have two versions ...

sometimes they die back.. other times they dont..

some peeps cut then to the ground ... every spring ... i usually dont.. and just spend some time cutting out dead wood in spring... unlike this year.. when i didnt even bother to do that ...

and i was rather surprised... this horrible MI winter.. didnt knock them back ...

come to think of it.. all that dead wood on one of them.. is whats left of it dieing to the ground.. lol ... so one does.. one doesnt ... lol ...

any help??? .. doubt it.. but its such a grey day.. i dont want to go look at the tags ... if the dogs i didnt want.. havent destroyed such.. like they have.. the rest of the back yard ....

ken

Moles are never a problem--they are insectivores, which means they eat only soil insects, never, ever plant material. And snow in summer is so vigorous that even if voles did eat some roots--unlikely--it would recover fast.

IME moles can be problem with plants, not because they have interest in the plants, but because in their seach for grubs, etc. they tunnel under roots, leaving them exposed to air.

Why do you ask? When I had snow in summer in my garden, it always looked fairly bad at this time of year due to foliage diseases perhaps; tthe main reason I stopped growing it was its ratty summer appearance though it also seeded around too much for me.