13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

OT: Why are two of the photos upside down on my Apple computer? I took all the photos with the IPad 2 and did not change the orientation while shooting. They are upright on the IPad.

Thanks, pitimpinai, I am trying to fill in bare spots. Your garden is an inspiration to me.

Congrats! I never could get the DG Delphinium seeds to sprout. I will try again next year. :):)

i always try to use fresh seed and seems to have best results but all garden advice should probably have the postscript-this works in my garden. this year for the first time ever i have delphinium volunteers-will be interesting to see the flower quality. these are second year plants from seed.

If that is indeed jewelweed, and it looks like to me, just a warning that in nature it can often be found near poison ivy - and is supposedly a treatment for it as well. So if you are planning on digging more out, just be careful where you stick your hands. :)

A friend of mine has big swaths of this growing along a streambank in the back yard. I have to agree with Kevin on this one - it looks actually rather nice in its spot, even though most consider it a weed, but I don't think I personally would move it to a garden. Besides, it seeds rather prolifically and would probably take over any bed its in.

Dee

I believe the 2nd one is jewelweed. I found some of them in our wild area with swamp rose, milkweed and many other plants. This is close to drainage stream.

I just found the flowers appealing. I'll keep them in my flower bed for a year to see how they look.

There are some mature clumps of pennisetum, each with dozens of perfect, fluffy white seed heads, each plant about 3ft tall & wide up the street mass planted about 3 ft apart. Simply gorgeous, long blooming with very fine leaves, each plant is the same and very thick. It looks good every year. I'd go for it, grasses are so easy and make great ground cover. Good luck.

I think you made the right choice. Pennisetum has been a pest in my garden and the fact you were able to sow tons of them sounds like a red flag.
... but I don't know why I don't have any snow in summer, the grey leaves look perfect!

Cute. My Sanguisorba menziesii that I started from seeds does not bloom much, very likely because the plant is squashed among others. :-D I am planning to sow some more this winter.

rouge, funny, i just posted a question about sanguisorba choice because i had not seen this thread! your handsome clump might work really well if a yellow foliage shrib were behind it. Deutzia chardonnay pearls, berberis aurea, yellow leaf forsythia(they stay small) ....

I found the following advice on the website of one of our local nurseries specializing in prairie restoration. See link below.

It looks like getting the weeds under control is not an easy task, but it is possible if you have the time and determination.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: weeds

Thanks for your replies. I see that I misspelled "large" in the subject and I can't change it--aack! RyseRyse, I feel for you. I'm glad I don't have a steep slope to deal with. Maybe hire someone to spray the weeds and add more mulch? Aachenelf, that's an excellent article from Prairie Moon. Lots of good ideas to ponder: cover crops, smothering, weed-whacking, mowing, burning, herbicide application techniques. Also good points about timing and techniques for sowing seeds.

Very good info here. Does anyone have special techniques for mulching roses? In terms of mulching materials, the consensus seems to be for shredded leaves or straw. Is this mainly due to the convenience/availability of these things, or is there some other advantage to using them? I have 3 new David austin rose bushes (Mayflower - own root with the bud union buried) to help survive their first winter, and was planning to bury the bases and canes in 3 to 4 inches of shredded wood. I'd thought about caging them as well, and filling up the cages with leaves to protect the canes, but since they're very close and visible from a pedestrian sidewalk I wasn't going to bother with that. However, I will if it's truly necessary.

We use shredded pine bark mulch on the beds and under the outlying plants anyway, so I don't add more mulch of any kind. I would think the chicken wire circles, with some bamboo or plastic stakes threaded through them and filled with shredded leaves would work really well for plants you were afraid might not make it through the winter - zone pushing ones especially.

I had heard on radio gardening shows that you should mulch for winter protection only after the plant has gone dormant - as Ken mentioned above.

I am still of the opinion that butterfly bushes should be severely cut back in the spring only. I prune back the height on Dubonnet only because it is always so tall and leggy that I'm afraid heavy winds or severe ice storms might up root it. So far, it hasn't minded the light pruning and has returned every spring.

Linda

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing pics. I gave up on delphiniums early on and didn't bother with Joe Pye either but my tall phlox, hardy hibiscus and balloon flowers are really putting on a show this year that's just more amazing with the waving wands of gaura to add texture. I planted pink, white and purple balloon flowers in front of the hardy hibiscus and now I know why.

Very nice! I like those pink coneflowers at the bottom right of the first pic, too.

I don't have corydalis but several of my other spring blooming plants never bloomed this year including doronicum, Jack Frost brunnera and bergenia. I wonder if the buds were killed off by our particularly cold winter. The foliage on all look healthy and robust enough.

No problem with Corydalis lutea here.
Most of it gets pulled out.

As usual we just leave it in a few out-of-the-way places and that remainder gets pulled out later.

We too had a late spring and C. lutea likes moisture.

Have never seen it not flower.

Am assuming most, if not all, of our yearly C. lutea is from previous years' seeding.

Lots of good advice. But note that 'big box' stores tend to change their plants in stock based on the season, so now you will likely find things that will bloom now or very soon. You will want to get some earlier bloomers as well, so plan to shop again in the spring and again in the early summer, or visit a good independent garden center that may still have some early blooming plants in stock.

Beth z5, northern Michigan

pitimpinai, I just wanted to remark on how lovely your gardens are! Absolutely lovely!

Smokey, congratulations on your retirement. Phlox is my favorite perennial, but I'm not sure how well suited it is to southern climes. (I'm in northern New England and it does well here.) Be sure to post photos when your plants begin to flower. Best of luck!

I also use a lot of different lengths of rebar, with a length of wire wrapped around the rebar leaving two arms with hooked ends to encircle my taller perennials, the whole thing is amazingly hidden in the foliage, as the perennials get taller just slide the wire up. Use a lot of conduit too, for pole beans mainly, stick a cork( if you don't have anything else) in the top, hammer a nail in and then run jute lines and anchor in the dirt.

Annette

Thanks for those pictures Annette and the description of your modified rebar. Maybe next year you can post a picture or two of the setup sans plants.

Pretty, rouge.

But I must be an odd one out. They look spectacular in books, but I have been totally underwhelmed by them in real life.

lalala, I was a bit surprised that ours made it through our similarly harsh winter but it came through easily.

I have Heliopsis *summer Sun* the leaves look similar too the ones in your photo, but mine are closer together and the flower head isn't that far above the foliage. The flower on mine is double pedal, 3-4 times more pedals than the one you showed.

Mine also gets 4-5 ft tall but has been blooming for over a month and will continue to do so until I cut it down in the fall. . . I hope yours gets id, Id love to know what it is and if I can grow it, I like the flower. Good luck.

could it be helianthus microcephalus? I've grown this and it does get tall - about 5 feet. The centers on yours look more yellow, but thougt I'd offer this suggestion anyway, just in case....

Dee

Here is a link that might be useful: microcephalus